To hear Microsofts top brass tell it, their 101,914-person, $327 billion company is made up of fanciful dreamers with a mission to empower the masses.根据微软公司（Microsoft）高层的众说纷纭，这家享有101,914名员工、市值3,270亿美元的公司由一群梦想家构成，他们的愿景是彰显大众以力量。At a press event today to introduce the Surface Pro 3 tablet, chief executive SatyaNadella and Surface Computing head Panos Panay repeatedly spoke of the dreams and empowerment that can be achieved with the companys new mobile device. The new Surface Pro is sleeker, faster, thinner, and lighter than its previous version, the executives said. It will allow people to perform business tasks such as word processing. And it will replace the laptop.在今天的Surface Pro 3平板电脑发布会上，微软公司首席执行官萨提亚o纳德拉和Surface部门领导帕诺斯o潘乃重复提及，利用微软公司这款新型移动设备可以构建“梦想”，取得“力量”。高管们回应，新款的Surface Pro比前两代产品更为轻巧时尚、运算速度更加慢。
它需要让人们已完成文字处理这类商务工作，还将“代替笔记本电脑。”If nothing else, the Surface Pro 3 may be Microsofts latest attempt in fulfilling its own long-held dream: to be a major player in a tablet market dominated by Apple, Amazon, and Samsung.Surface Pro 3或许是微软公司为构建自己多年梦想所做到的最后一次尝试，也就是在由苹果（Apple）、亚马逊（Amazon）和三星（Samsung）统治者的平板电脑市场上沦为强大的竞争者。
Though the company has long offered tablet computers, the devices modern incarnation has been a problem for Microsoft (MSFT). Even before Apple (AAPL) introduced the iPad in 2010, pundits predicted that tablets would eventually replace the laptop, just as the laptop had largely replaced the desktop computer. For Microsoft, that spelled trouble: Office and Windows have long been two of the companys most lucrative products. While PCs running Windows still dominate the laptop market, Apples iOS leads the tablet market. To say that Microsoft is a distant third is an understatement.尽管微软公司长年供应“平板电脑”，但怎样让这种设备显得时尚仍然是这家公司的老大难问题。甚至在2010年苹果发售iPad之前，许多专家就预计平板电脑最后不会代替笔记本电脑，正如笔记本电脑在相当大程度上代替了台式机一样。对微软公司而言，这是一件麻烦事：多年来，办公软件Office和操作系统Windows都是这家公司最赚的两大产品。
尽管台式机用于的Windows依然统治者着笔记本电脑市场，但苹果的iOS系统却在平板电脑市场遥遥领先。说道微软公司是被相比之下抛在后面的老三都早已是有所保有了。（谷歌安卓和苹果iOS分列前二，这两大操作系统在平板电脑市场的占有率超过了97.9%。
）One of the best ways for Microsoft to get its software on tablets would be to make its own. Thus, Surface.微软公司想让自己的软件经常出现在平板电脑上，最差的办法之一就是研发自己的产品。因此，Surface应运而生。To date, Surface hasnt been a success. Microsoft has lost more than $1.2 billion on its tablet business so far, prompting analysts to call it a money pit. Even with sales doubling year-over-year in the fourth quarter, Surface tablets make up less than 10% of the market, according to industry tracker IDC.迄今为止，Surface还无法称得上上顺利。
截至目前，微软公司早已在平板电脑业务上亏损了多达12亿美元，分析家们把它称为“资金无底洞”。根据信息技术行业服务提供商IDC的数据，尽管Surface在2013年第四季度的销量同比翻番，在市场上的占有率却依然将近10%。
Today, amid the fluffy talk of dreams and empowerment, Microsoft showed it has at least listened to past criticisms of the Surface.如今，在对梦想和力量的侃侃而谈之中，微软公司展现出出有他们最少征询了人们过去对于Surface的抨击。The flimsy attachable keyboard made it hard to work on your lap? Microsoft added an extra magnetic attachment to make it more secure.轻巧的外接键盘让人很难把Surface放到膝盖上用于？那好，微软公司现在减少了一个额外的磁性扣住，让它能放得更稳。The upright kickstand angle made the tablet hard to draw on? Microsoft made it fully flexible. (The crowd applauded at this feature.)“Kickstand”支架的垂直角度让Surface用一起很不方便？现在人们可以灵活性调整支架的角度了。
（人们对这项功能赞不绝口。）The keyboards trackpadperformed badly? Microsoft reduced the friction on it.键盘的触控板效果很差？微软公司减少了它的摩擦。
The small 10.6-inch screen made it too small to get real work done? Microsoft expanded the Surface screen to 12 inches, without adding any weight. Microsoft also reduced the devices thickness from 10.6 millimeters to 9.1 millimeters without making it weaker, and demonstrated the feat by dropping a device on a carpeted floor.10.6英寸的屏幕太小了，确实挣钱时很不方便？微软公司把新一代Surface屏幕减小到了12英寸，却没减少设备重量，反而还把产品的厚度从10.6毫米增加到9.1毫米，却可用它强度。为了证明这点，展示者还把Surface摔在了铺着毯子的地面上。And so on. Panay walked the crowd through an hours worth of feature demonstrations, showing off the Surfaces versatile click-pen, automatic cloud synching, andside-by-side computing abilities.还有许许多多其他功能。潘乃用了整整一个小时向听众们展出产品的特性，还包括Surface的多用触控笔、自动云实时，以及并行计算能力。
With the Surface Pro 3, Microsoft is saying that it is no longer scared of tablets killing laptops. (The market incentives are certainly helping.) In fact, it wants to fire the first shot, and Panay closed the event by proudly declaring that the Surface Pro 3 will be the tablet that will replace the laptop. (It goes on sale tomorrow with a $799 price tag.)有了Surface Pro 3，微软公司回应他们仍然惧怕平板电脑出局笔记本电脑了。（市场的性刺激似乎起着了起到。）实质上，微软公司自己就想要打响出局战的第一枪，在发布会的最后，潘乃自豪地宣告：Surface Pro 3将不会是代替笔记本电脑的平板电脑。（这款产品将于明天上市，售价799美元。
）His premise is flawed, of course. The laptop doesnt need replacing, at least not yet. Today, the laptop remains a need-to-have product; the tablet is a nice-to-have product. Analysts are even predicting a peak in tablet sales -- last quarter, unit sales of iPads actually declined.当然，他的预测还有缺憾。笔记本电脑还不必须被代替，最少目前如此。如今，笔记本电脑仍归属于“必需品”，而平板电脑还是“有更佳，没也讫”的产品。
分析家甚至预测平板电脑销量将不会超过峰值——但实质上，在上一季度，iPad的销量还经常出现了下降。But Panay clearly wants the Surface Pro 3 to change that. In saying so, he inadvertently made the best argument against the dominance of tablets himself: 96% of iPad owners also own a laptop, he noted. Youve been told to buy a tablet, but you know you need a laptop, he said. By declaring war on the laptop, Microsoft is fighting an enemy that might not be there.不过，潘乃似乎期望Surface Pro 3需要转变这一点。但他在抛这个理论时，一不小心明确提出了对自己“平板电脑统治者论”的最差批评：关于96%的iPad用户也享有笔记本电脑这一事实，他回应：“人们都让你去卖平板电脑，但你自己告诉，你仍然必须笔记本电脑。
”微软公司在向笔记本电脑开战，但与此同时，它面临的或许是一个显然就不不存在的敌人。
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