Imagine you make cars and come to work one day to discover that everyone in the world has a vehicle that does everything they need and no one wants to replace it. 想象一下你生产汽车，某天下班后找到全世界每个人都享有一辆汽车，而那辆车可以做到他们必须的一切事情，没有人想换成它。This is not unlike the position smartphone makers are in today. Billions of people now carry a pocket computer with capabilities that exceed even science fiction’s predictions. And they’re mostly happy with their Star Trek-like devices. 这很像智能手机制造商当下的处境。

如今，数十亿人都随身携带一台运算能力甚至远超过科幻小说应验的“便携式计算机”。而且，他们基本上对这些《星际变形金刚》(Star Trek)一样的设备深感失望。For phonemakers, then, it’s an “innovate or die” scenario. But the innovations that everyone in the world wants — vastly better battery life, a perfect signal everywhere and perhaps a teleportation app — may never be attainable. 因此，对于手机制造商而言，这将是一场“创意或丧生”的游戏。

但是，全世界人人都想的创意——获得很大提高的电池续航力、无处不在的极致信号，甚至一款“瞬间移往”应用于——也许总有一天无法构建。So unless you’re Apple, which is starting to be perceived as a little bit boring, the way ahead in smartphones has to be solutions in pursuit of problems people didn’t know they had. 所以，除非你是早已开始被视作有点无趣的苹果(Apple)，否则智能手机的下一步发展必需是为人们尚能不告诉不存在的问题获取解决方案。Last week’s most-publicised such solution was Huawei’s sleek P9, with its twin cameras and arresting co-branding with Germany’s elite Leica camera company. One can only hope for the Chinese manufacturer that the consuming masses have heard of Leica. 上周造势得最沸沸扬扬的此类解决方案是华为(Huawei)公布的线条简洁的P9手机。该款手机配有了双摄像头，并以与德国顶级的徕卡(Leica)照相机公司展开品牌合作为卖点。

人们不能盼望这家中国制造商的消费群体听闻过徕卡。But my 2016-so-far award for inventive problem finding has to go to LG, South Korea’s estimable, but second-ranking chaebol. Its new flagship phone — the G5 — launched in London a tactical day before the P9. And I found myself in equal measure impressed and amused by it. 但2016年目前为止，在创造性地找到问题方面，我更加寄予厚望的是韩国LG。虽然是一家不受人敬重的公司，但LG在韩国的大企业中只不敌第二梯队。LG的战术是，在华为公布P9前一天在伦敦发售了其新款旗舰手机G5。

我找到这款手机既让我印象深刻印象，也让我实在冷笑话。Aside from its own twin cameras, LG’s effort has the overarching gimmick of being the first modular mobile phone. Press a button and half the device’s insides plop out, revealing space for extra gadgets to slot in, such as a Bang Olufsen sound-enhancing music module and an attachment to convert the phone into a traditional camera. 除了其配备的双摄像头，LG此番希望的最重要噱头在于，G5是首款模块化手机。

按下按钮，G5内部一半的模块会弹出有，为放入可选设备——比如一款强化音效的Bang Olufsen品牌音乐模组，或者一款将手机改变为传统相机的配件——腾出空间。There is also a virtual reality headset — the best I’ve seen — and a slot-in projector is in the works. Then there’s the spherical robot, which under your control from the phone will roll around the house entertaining the cat and censoring what the kids are watching on TV (they still watch TV?). G5还备有一款我见过的最差的虚拟现实头罩，LG还在研发一款插入式投影仪。还有一款你可以用G5手机掌控的球形机器人，让它满屋子转来转去地伴猫或者监督孩子们在看什么电视节目（他们还看电视？）。

Now, leaving aside that I know there is at least one more modular phone due out this year (and another surprising camera co-branding on the horizon), the LG G5 is truly interesting and must have half a chance of taking off. It is crazily packed with features: no one could ever learn a quarter of its capabilities. 且不托我告诉今年最少还有一款模块化手机将不会发售（以及另一款出人意料与照相机展开品牌合作的手机），LG的G5知道很有意思，认同有一半的胜算可以最畅销。这款手机构建的功能过于多了：没有人掌控得了四分之一的功能。

Does it, I asked at the launch, almost to be awkward, have the feature I first saw from Huawei that’s wildly popular in Asia, where software will “beautify” your face in a selfie — but not the faces of your friends? Of course it does. 在G5的发布会上，我完全有些失望地问道，这款手机是不是我在华为手机上首次看到的、在亚洲甚广热门的自拍电影时为自己“美颜”（但不给你的朋友美颜）的功能？当然有。With deference to the fact that North Korea is a little different from South Korea, I find it hard not to call this, in a Korean phone, the Kim Jong Un mode. 虽然朝鲜和韩国有所不同，但我不禁把这种功能称作“金正恩模式”。

LG’s modular idea will be hit or miss. The smallest gimmick can catch on in phones. Just the G5’s trick of sliding its innards out could become iconic in a small way. It combines the alarming nature of grandpa popping out his dentures with a sultry, gun-like menace. LG的模块化理念有可能流行，也有可能昙花一现。手机上大于的噱头也有可能流行起来。仅有是G5的内部模块弹头出有功能就有可能以小小的方式显得具备偶像性。

它融合了祖父摘得假牙般的令人震惊与扳动枪机般迷人的高傲形象。What is cutest about LG’s venture is the challenge to its mighty rival, Samsung. LG leapfrogging Samsung’s phones is, in football terms, like a defender on my second-tier Nottingham Forest team nutmegging Lionel Messi. LG此举的最妙之处是挑战其强劲的输掉三星(Samsung)。LG在手机上一下子打破三星，用足球打比喻，就像我最喜欢的乙级的诺丁汉森林队(Nottingham Forest)的一名后卫把球从莱昂内尔梅西(Lionel Messi)的两腿之间传过去。

LG, on the other hand, has got things (as it has before) a tiny bit wrong — charmingly, adorably wrong, but wrong nonetheless. The modules for the G5, for example, are officially called “friends”. And the part of LG where friends come from is “the LG playground”. 另一方面，同以前一样，LG罪了一点点错误——拢得很甜美，但还是拢了。例如，G5的模块被月地称作“朋友”。

而这些朋友来自“LG游乐场”。No, no and thrice no. This must be LG’s ditsyest linguistic error since 2009, when they announced a “borderless” TV — supposedly with a picture going right to the screen’s edge. Except that the picture had perfectly normal borders, which was quite bizarre. 不，不，还是不。这一定是LG自2009年以来最粗心的用词不当，那年他们公布了一款“无边框”电视——按说应当是画面往返屏幕边缘。

只是那款电视机有几乎长时间的边框，这很怪异。So where does it all lead? I had lunch last week with Carl Pei, the 26-year-old founder of OnePlus, the cult Chinese smartphone maker. 那么，这一切将意味著什么？上周，我与中国智能手机制造商一加(OnePlus) 26岁的牵头创始人裴宇(Carl Pei)共计入了午餐。一加手机在特定的消费群体中很热门。“What will your phones do in five or 10 years’ time?” I asked. 我问道：“5年或10年后，你们的手机能做到什么？” “I’m not so sure,” Mr Pei said. “Smart watches have not succeeded, but I’m wondering now whether these technologies will be starting to be integrated into the [human] body.” “我不过于确认”，裴宇说道，“智能手表未获得成功，但我现在猜测这些技术不会会将开始带入人体。

” I can’t wait to see how that prediction looks in 2026. 我有心着要想到这一预测在2026年否不会变成现实。

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