For months, Apple watchers have been puzzling over how the company would sell consumers on the idea that scrapping¹ the iPhone’s headphone jack² was a benefit, not a nuisance.

好几个月来，苹果(Apple)观察家对这样一个问题感到困惑：该公司将如何说服消费者相信，取消iPhone的耳机插孔是功能升级，而不是一个恼人的问题。

Many pundits³ predicted a backlash against removing a technology that, however old, remained in faithful daily service to hundreds of millions of people.

许多评论人士预计，移除一项每日忠实服务于亿万人的技术（无论它怎么陈旧）将招致反弹。

Few, however, predicted quite the kind of negative reaction that Apple provoked during Wednesday’s iPhone 7 launch event, with critics taking to Twitter en masse.

然而，很少有人预测到苹果在周三iPhone 7发布会上引发的那种负面反应，批评者纷纷在Twitter上吐槽。

To prepare its pitch, Apple had plenty of experience to draw on with when making this type of shift.

就准备说辞而言，苹果在作出这种转变时有足够经验可以借鉴。

In 2008, when Steve Jobs pulled the MacBook Air out of a brown paper envelope, it lacked the CD drive that was standard on other PCs, allowing the new notebook to be much thinner than its competitors.

2008年，当苹果创始人史蒂夫•乔布斯(Steve Jobs)从一个牛皮纸信封取出MacBook Air时，人们发现这款全新设计的笔记本电脑没有PC上都有的CD驱动器，这使它比竞争对手更薄。

Jobs predicted, accurately⁴, that soon software and media would be delivered over the internet, rather than on discs.

乔布斯准确地预测，软件和媒体很快会通过互联网交付，而不是光盘。

We don’t think most users are going to miss the optical drive, he said. The MacBook Air was built to be a wireless⁵ machine.

我们不认为大多数用户会怀念光驱，他说，MacBook Air的设计宗旨就是一款无线机器。

The iPhone, just a year old at that point, was also built to be wireless.

那时刚满周岁的iPhone也以无线为设计宗旨。

But the 3.5mm wired headphone socket⁶ has endured thanks to its simplicity⁷, reliability⁸ and universal compatibility.

但3.5毫米的耳机接口由于其简洁性、可靠性和普遍兼容性而被保留了下来。

When Phil Schiller, Apple’s marketing⁹ chief, took tothe stage in San Francisco on Wednesday, he portrayed¹⁰ the port as a hangover from the 19th century that was standing¹¹ in the way of 21st century progress.

当苹果的营销主管菲尔•席勒(Phil Schiller)周三走上旧金山的舞台时，他把这种接口说成是19世纪遗留下来的产物，阻挡着21世纪的进步。

Our smartphones are packed with technologies and we all want more, which meant removing some components¹² to make way for bigger batteries and faster processors, he said.

我们的智能手机挤满了技术，大家都想要更多，他表示，这意味着移除一些组件，为更大的电池和速度更快的处理器腾出空间。

The reason to move on comes down to one word: courage — the courage to move on, do something new that betters all of us.

翻开新一页的原因归结为一个词：勇气——翻开新一页的勇气，做让我们所有人过得更好的新产品。

And our team has tremendous courage.

而我们的团队有巨大勇气。

If Mr Schiller was trying to head off a backlash, his speech may have backfired.

如果说席勒在试图预防反弹，那么他的话可能起到了反作用。

Faced with what many decried¹³ as another example of Apple hubris¹⁴, social networks lit up in a mix of bewilderment, outrage¹⁵ and parody¹⁶.

面对许多人所谴责的苹果傲慢的又一个例证，社交网络迸发出大量交织着困惑、愤怒和搞笑的言论。

Removing a headphone jack doesn’t take courage.

取消一个耳机插孔并不需要勇气。

But charging $159 for AirPods does, tweeted Dave Pell, an investor¹⁷ and iOS app developer, referring to the pricey new wireless headphones that Apple launched alongside the iPhone 7.

但对AirPods开出159美元的售价确实需要勇气，投资者和iOS应用开发者戴夫•佩尔(Dave Pell)在Twitter上发帖称。他指的是苹果与iPhone 7同时发布的昂贵的新款无线耳机。

Mike Monteiro, creative director at San Francisco studio Mule¹⁸ Design, posted advert-like images of historical figures such as Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks and Anne Frank with AirPods Photoshopped into their ears, each bearing the caption¹⁹ Courage.

旧金山工作室骡子设计(Mule Design)的创意总监迈克•蒙蒂罗(Mike Monteiro)贴出历史人物——如圣雄甘地(Mahatma Gandhi)、罗莎•帕克斯(Rosa Parks)和安妮•弗兰克(Anne Frank)——的广告形象，用Photoshop把AirPods塞进他们的耳朵，每幅画面的说明文字都是勇气。

Behind the ridicule²⁰ was the feeling that even if its headphones really do sound better than others’, Apple’s motivations were primarily commercial.

这种调侃背后的感觉是，即使苹果的耳机音质确实更好，该公司的主要动机也是商业性的。

These moves represent Apple’s desire to bolster²¹ declining mobile device revenues by capturing as much of its device owners’ expenditures²² in the burgeoning²³ growing audio accessories market as possible, says Paul Erickson, analyst²⁴ at IHS Technology, a research group.

这些举动反映出苹果渴望提振不断下降的移动设备营收，尽可能多地捕捉到其设备所有者在方兴未艾的音频配件市场的消费，研究机构IHS Technology分析师保罗•埃里克森(Paul Erickson)表示。

It should be noted²⁵ that wireless models are the highest revenue-generating products within the headphone market.

应该指出的是，无线型号是耳机市场中创收最高的产品。

Geoff Blaber, an analyst at CCS Insight, predicts the move to wireless audio ultimately will be seen as a masterstroke, thanks to the benefits to both users and Apple’s own accessories sales.

CCS Insight的分析师杰夫•布拉波(Geoff Blaber)预计，改用无线音频最终将被视为一个神来之笔，对用户、对苹果自己的配件销售都有好处。

Most customers’ immediate²⁶ concerns will be salved by the inclusion of new earbuds that work with the iPhone’s remaining Lightning port, as well as an adaptor for traditional headphones, he says.

他表示，苹果顾及了多数顾客眼下的担忧，包括了可插入iPhone尚存的Lightning端口的新款耳机，还有一个可连接传统耳机的适配器。