Fifteen years ago this week, Apple launched the iPod, unleashing¹ a wave of disruption over the music industry and reviving the fortunes of what was then a struggling computer company.

15年前的这一周，苹果公司(Apple)发布了iPod，在音乐行业掀起波澜，重新振兴了这家当时正身处困境的计算机公司。

Thanks in part to growth spurred by the iPod, Apple has never since posted a decline in annual revenues — until this week, when it revealed an 8 per cent drop in sales for 2016.

部分得益于iPod所带来的增长势头，此后苹果从未出现年收入下滑的情况——直到本周，苹果公布其2016财年销售额下降了8%。

Now, it is looking to another digital media revolution to galvanise its business.

现在，苹果正寻求用另外一场数字媒体革命来提振业务。

With sales of its iPhone, iPad, Macs and even the Apple Watch in decline during its fiscal² fourth quarter,

在第四财季，苹果iPhone、iPad、Macs甚至Apple Watch的销售都出现下滑。

the company sought to focus investors³’ attention on the one bright spot in Tuesday’s earnings⁴ report: its services business.

在这种情况下，苹果寻求将投资者的注意力吸引到其周二盈利报告的一个亮点上：服务业务。

These days, that means much more than just the iTunes store that powered the iPod.

如今这方面业务不仅仅指为iPod提供支持的iTunes商店。

Revenues from online services such as the App Store, iCloud and Apple Music rose 24 per cent to a record $6.3bn, making it the company’s second largest source of income after the iPhone.

第四季度来自苹果应用商店(App Store)、iCloud和Apple Music等在线服务的收入增长了24%，达到创纪录的63亿美元，使在线服务成为该公司仅次于iPhone的第二大收入来源。

That was faster than the 18 per cent growth that analysts⁶ at Piper Jaffray had predicted.

这一增长快于Piper Jaffray的分析师预测的18%。

Luca Maestri, Apple’s finance chief, described services as the highlight of the quarter,

苹果主管财务的卢卡.马埃斯特里(Luca Maestri)称，服务业务是本季度的亮点。

saying in an interview: Momentum⁷ is very good.

他在一次访谈中表示：增长势头非常好。

Mr Maestri repeated a prediction first made earlier this year that, if it were a standalone entity⁸, Apple’s services unit would be a large enough business to reach the Fortune 100 rankings of the top US companies by next year.

马埃斯特里重提了今年早些时候首次做出的一个预测，如果苹果的服务业务部门是一家独立公司，其规模将足以使其在明年跻身美国企业财富100强排行榜。

Already, its most recent quarterly sales outstripped⁹ Facebook’s second-quarter advertising¹⁰ revenues of $6.2bn.

苹果服务业务最近季度的销售额已经超过了Facebook第二季度62亿美元的广告收入。

Apple first put the spotlight¹¹ on services in January, at the same time as it said that iPhone revenues would go into decline for the first time.

苹果最初是在今年1月把外界的眼光吸引到其服务上的，当时苹果表示来自iPhone的收入将首次下降。

It said then that more than 1bn Apple devices had been in use over the past 90 days.

苹果还表示，在过去90天内，有超过10亿部苹果设备在使用之中。

They certainly want a narrative¹² that not all of Apple’s future is tied to the iPhone, says Ben Bajarin, analyst⁵ at Creative Strategies.

它们无疑希望营造一种论调，即苹果的未来并非全部系于iPhone，Creative Strategies分析师本.巴加林(Ben Bajarin)说，

The underlying¹³ tone there is they are emphasising the consistency¹⁴.

潜台词是它们重视持续性。

However, investors have been slow to shift their view of Apple as a volatile¹⁵ hardware maker¹⁶, vulnerable to the fluctuations¹⁷ of the consumer electronics market, rather than a software company with stable recurring¹⁸ revenues.

然而，投资者对苹果的看法迟迟难以转变，他们依然把苹果视作一家不稳定的硬件制造商，容易受到消费电子市场波动的影响，而不是一家有稳定的经常性收入的软件公司。

After all, the iPhone still makes up almost two-thirds of Apple’s revenues, a ratio that is changing only slowly.

毕竟，iPhone依然占苹果收入的几近三分之二，而且这个比例变化得非常缓慢。

Investors we talk to are largely dismissive of the long-term impact that services can have on the Apple model, Piper Jaffray said in a recent note.

与我们交谈过的投资者大多不认为服务业务对苹果商业模式会有什么长期影响，Piper Jaffray在最近的一份报告中表示。