乔布斯传 第700期:出版和新闻(2)

The day after the iPad launch, Jobs described to me his thinking on books: Amazon screwed it up.

iPad发布第二天，乔布斯就向我讲述了自己对于图书的想法：亚马逊搞砸了。

It paid the wholesale¹ price for some books, but started selling them below cost at $9.99.

它用批发价买了一些书，但用低于成本价的9.99美元进行销售。

The publishers hated that -- they thought it would trash their ability to sell hardcover books at $28.

出版商对此深恶痛绝，这会影响他们以28美元的价格销售精装书的能力。

So before Apple even got on the scene, some booksellers were starting to withhold² books from Amazon.

因此，在苹果还未进入电子书领域之前，一些书商就已经停止向亚马逊供书。

So we told the publishers, "We'll go to the agency model, where you set the price, and we get our 30%,

于是，我们跟出版商说，“我们采用代理模式，你们定价，我们抽成30%。

and yes, the customer pays a little more, but that's what you want anyway."

确实，消费者会多出点儿钱，但是反正这就是你们想要的结果。”

But we also asked for a guarantee that if anybody else is selling the books cheaper than we are, then we can sell them at the lower price too.

不过，我们也要求，如果有别的地方比我们卖得更便宜，那么我们也能以更低的价格进行销售。

So they went to Amazon and said, "You're going to sign an agency contract or we're not going to give you the books."

于是，他们找到亚马逊说，“你们得跟我们签订代理合同，否则我们就不会给你们书。”

Jobs acknowledged³ that he was trying to have it both ways when it came to music and books.

乔布斯承认，在音乐和图书领域，他可以都实行两种模式。

He had refused to offer the music companies the agency model and allow them to set their own prices.

他拒绝与音乐公司建立代理模式及赋予他们自己定价的权力。

Why? Because he didn't have to. But with books he did.

为什么？因为他不必如此。但是电子书就得这样。

"We were not the first people in the books business," he said.

“我们不是最早进入面书业务的，”他说。

"Given the situation that existed, what was best for us was to do this akido move and end up with the agency model. And we pulled it off."

“鉴于现有的情况，对我们最有利的策略就是借力使力，和出版商建立代理模式。我们成功了。”

1 wholesale   

n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售

参考例句：

• The retail dealer buys at wholesale and sells at retail.零售商批发购进货物，以零售价卖出。
• Such shoes usually wholesale for much less.这种鞋批发出售通常要便宜得多。

2 withhold   

v.拒绝，不给；使停止，阻挡

参考例句：

• It was unscrupulous of their lawyer to withhold evidence.他们的律师隐瞒证据是不道德的。
• I couldn't withhold giving some loose to my indignation.我忍不住要发泄一点我的愤怒。

3 acknowledged   

adj.公认的v.承认( acknowledge的过去式和过去分词 )；鸣谢；对…打招呼；告知已收到

参考例句：

• He acknowledged publicly that he might have made a mistake. 他当众承认自己可能犯了个错误。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The police acknowledged that three police vehicles were damaged. 警方承认有三辆警车被毁。 来自《简明英汉词典》