Hong Kong-based Green Tomato is feeding the city's seemingly insatiable appetite for mobile devices, having launched more than 80 applications for the iPhone and iPad since 2009. Getty Images

　　總部位于香港的Green Tomato正在努力地滿足這個城市對移動設(shè)備似乎永無止境的渴求。自2009年以來，這家公司已經(jīng)為iPhone和iPad推出了80多款應用程序。

　　The developer is behind apps for Pizza Hut, the newspaper Apple Daily and Hong Kong Disneyland. Established in 2003 as a mobile-solutions consultancy, in 2007 Green Tomato was named one of Red Herring magazine's 100 top private technology companies world-wide. In addition to its 80 mobile applications, the company has created 150 mobile websites that it says reach around three million subscribers in all.

　　Green Tomato還為必勝客(Pizza Hut)、《蘋果日報》(Apple Daily)和香港狄斯奈樂園(Hong Kong Disneyland)開發(fā)了應用程序。這家移動解決方案咨詢公司創(chuàng)建于2003年，到2007年就入圍了《紅鯡魚》(Red Herring)雜志全球私營科技公司排名前100名的榜單。除了80款移動應用程序之外，公司還創(chuàng)建了150個移動網(wǎng)站，該公司稱這些網(wǎng)站的注冊用戶總數(shù)已經(jīng)達到了約300萬人。

　　Business started off locally, says chief executive Sunny Kok, but has expanded globally-with projects that include the world-wide app for car maker BMW. Green Tomato now has offices in Singapore and Qatar, and Mr. Kok wants to prove Asia's gift for innovation around the world.

　　首席執(zhí)行長郭秉鑫表示，Green Tomato業(yè)務(wù)雖然是從香港本土起步，但現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)擴展到了全世界——包括為寶馬汽車公司(BMW)開發(fā)全球應用程序。Green Tomato目前在新加坡和卡塔爾設(shè)有辦公室，郭秉鑫希望能向全世界證明亞洲的創(chuàng)新能力。

　　"People think that China can only copy something," he says.

　　他說，“人們認為中國只會仿制一些東西。”

　　Mr. Kok and marketing communications officer Jacqueline Chong talked to the Wall Street Journal about the future of mobile technology in Hong Kong and beyond.

　　Green Tomato郭秉鑫和Green Tomato市場營銷專員Jacqueline Chong向《華爾街日報》(Wall Street Journal)暢談了移動技術(shù)未來在香港以及世界范圍內(nèi)的發(fā)展前景。

　　What's been a game-changer in the world of technology in the past few years?

　　《華爾街日報》：過去幾年來，是什么改變了技術(shù)界的游戲規(guī)則？

　　Mr. Kok: The iPhone changed everything, including consumer behavior. On the MTR [subway], you see that people are watching their phones rather than listening to their phones. People are using apps much more than before. We think this will continue with devices like the Blackberry Playbook and Nokia's new smartphones with Windows Mobile. People using apps on their mobiles will be a must and it's going to be an increasingly crowded app market.

　　郭秉鑫：iPhone改變了一切，包括消費者的行為方式。在MTR地鐵上，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)人們都在看著他們的手機而不是在聽他們的手機。人們對應用程序的使用要比以往多得多。我們認為，這種現(xiàn)象在黑莓平板電腦Blackberry Playbook和搭載有Windows Mobile作業(yè)系統(tǒng)的諾基亞新智能手機身上將會得到繼續(xù)。人們在手機上使用應用程序?qū)⒊蔀橐环N必需，所以未來應用程序市場也將會越來越擁擠。

　　What technology are you excited about that's not on the Hong Kong market yet?

　　《華爾街日報》：什么技術(shù)讓你感到振奮但卻還沒有出現(xiàn)在香港市場？

　　Mr. Kok: NFC [Near Field Communication] modules-it's a general technology like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi that will be embedded in upcoming phones. The concept is like a Hong Kong Octopus card-you can make transactions like a credit card. I think this concept will totally change behavior of people while they shop. Your transactions can then be displayed on the particular app.

　　郭秉鑫：近場通訊技術(shù)(Near Field Communication，簡稱NFC)模組——它是一種類似于藍牙(Bluetooth)或者Wi-Fi的通用技術(shù)，將在未來的手機上得到使用。它的概念有點兒像香港的八達通卡(Octopus card)——你可以像使用信用卡一樣用它來進行交易。我想，這個概念將會完全改變?nèi)藗冊谫徫飼r的行為方式。你的交易明細隨后可以通過一款特別的應用程序顯示出來。

　　What are you hoping to do with NFC technology?

　　《華爾街日報》：你希望NFC技術(shù)實現(xiàn)什么樣的功能？

　　Mr. Kok: We have corporate clients, and more than 90% of them have membership systems. Applications that are NFC-enabled can organize all the loyalty points right there [once you buy directly from your phone]. This will be the trend for the next one to two years.

　　郭秉鑫：我們的公司客戶中超過90%都建立了會員制度。采用NFC技術(shù)的應用程序可以當即整理你所有的積分（只要你是通過手機直接購物的），這將成為未來一到兩年內(nèi)的一種趨勢。

　　What else are you looking forward to?

　　《華爾街日報》：你還有什么其他的期待？

　　Mr. Kok: We're excited about glass, plasma and LCD surface devices that can connect to the Internet. So far it's been too expensive, so it's not that popular. I think the technology will be cheaper in just one to two years. The usage will be different from a tablet or a mobile device-it's more like furniture. You can interact with it while brushing your teeth, cooking food. But I think the potential is more on the commercial side rather than domestic use. It can be used in a shop window or a display table in a commercial building.

　　郭秉鑫：我們對能夠連接互聯(lián)網(wǎng)的玻璃、等離子和液晶顯示器設(shè)備感到興奮。目前它的價格非常昂貴，因此還不太普及。我想這項技術(shù)的造價在一兩年內(nèi)就會降下來。它的用法與平板電腦或者移動設(shè)備大不相同——而更像是一件家俱，你在刷牙、做飯的時候都可以和它進行互動，但我想它的潛力更多在于商業(yè)用途，而不是家庭使用。它可以用于商店櫥窗或者商業(yè)樓宇的顯示幕。

　　Android is now the world's most popular smartphone software, but it lags behind the iPhone for apps. Will this change?

　　《華爾街日報》：安卓(Android)目前是世界上最流行的智能手機軟件，但它在應用程序方面要落后于iPhone。這種情況會改變嗎？

　　Mr. Kok: Android is very important because it's got a lot of hardware brands that support the software. It has a lower price point-that's why it's more popular right now.

　　郭秉鑫：安卓非常重要，因為它得到了很多硬體品牌的支援。它的價位比較低——這就是為什么它現(xiàn)在比別的軟件更加流行的原因。

　　Ms. Chong: But the Android market is quite segmented. Manufacturers and operators each develop individual app markets. Some of them even block the original Android app market, so it's difficult for users to explore good apps. Jacqueline Chong：

　　但是安卓市場分散化的現(xiàn)象非常嚴重。制造商和運營商各自開發(fā)自己的應用程序市場。他們當中的一些人甚至阻斷了安卓最初的應用程序市場，因此使用者很難發(fā)現(xiàn)好的應用程序。

　　And it seems like the Android market will continue to be fragmented as more and more operators develop smartphones. Different parties will have different interests. They can't touch IOS if they're not Apple, so Android is the only way to go. While Apple is very centralized, Android is largely fragmented-you're seeing two extremes.

　　而且，隨著越來越多的運營商開始研發(fā)智能手機，安卓的市場似乎仍將保持分散狀態(tài)。不同方面擁有不同的利益。如果不是蘋果公司(Apple)的產(chǎn)品，就無法使用IOS作業(yè)系統(tǒng)，因此安卓就成了唯一的選擇。蘋果高度集中，而安卓在很大程度上卻呈現(xiàn)分散局面——這是兩個極端。

　　What smartphone system do you prefer?

　　《華爾街日報》：你喜歡什么樣的智能手機系統(tǒng)？

　　Mr. Kok: Developers love iPhones-the IOS software is much easier to use. We're looking forward to the iPhone 5. Supposedly, NFC technology can be hooked up to the iPhone 5.

　　郭秉鑫：研發(fā)人員喜歡iPhone——IOS軟件使用起來要容易得多。我們正在期待著iPhone 5面世，它很有可能將會采用NFC技術(shù)。

　　Developing Android apps is 10 times more difficult than iPhone apps. According to our experience, for our Hong Kong Movies app, we have only 20% downloads coming from Android.

　　研發(fā)安卓的應用程序要比iPhone困難10倍。按照我們的經(jīng)驗，我們的“香港電影”(Hong Kong Movies)應用程序只有20%的下載量來自安卓系統(tǒng)。

　　What do you think of Nokia's recent announcement that it will partner with Windows Mobile software for its smartphones?

　　《華爾街日報》：諾基亞(Nokia)最近宣布將與Windows Mobile軟件合作開發(fā)其智能手機，你怎么看待這件事情？

　　Mr. Kok: Nokia still sells the most phones in the world, so it's in a good position. But it really depends on how it will integrate with Windows Mobile. We're not sure whether it will fit. Windows will only support English-it will still be a long, long way before it can host different languages-but Nokia is very popular in developing countries. Windows's interface and overall experience is gorgeous, though.

　　郭秉鑫：諾基亞仍然是全球手機銷量最大的公司，因此它處于一個非常有利的位置，但事實上這將取決于它如何與Windows Mobile進行整合。我們不確定雙方的整合能否順利進行。Windows將僅僅支援英語一種語言——要想支援不同的語言，它還有很長、很長的一段路要走——但是諾基亞在發(fā)展中國家很受歡迎，當然Windows的介面和整體感覺都非常棒。

　　What are your most popular apps?

　　《華爾街日報》：你們公司的哪款應用程序最受歡迎？

　　Ms. Chong: Our Hong Kong Movie app on the iPhone [which aggregates show times, seat plans and theater information] has accumulated more than 700,000 viewers and 70,000 unique visitors. Our new Top Box voice-messenger app [for sending short voice messages] reached a million users in two months and sends more than four million messages a day. Right now it's only on the iPhone but we want to launch Android and Blackberry apps by the end of the year. What was really surprising was that our Top Box app, which is only in English, became the No. 1 social networking app in China for a couple of days.

　　Jacqueline Chong：我們在iPhone手機上推出的“香港電影”應用程序（集合了放映時間、座位圖以及劇場信息）的累計訪問數(shù)已經(jīng)超過了70萬次，其中唯一訪問數(shù)達到了7萬次。我們新推出的TalkBox語音信息應用程序（專為發(fā)送語音短信開發(fā)）在兩個月內(nèi)就擁有了100萬使用者，每天發(fā)送語音信息超過400萬條。目前只有iPhone手機擁有此項功能，但是我們希望在今年年底之前推出針對安卓和黑莓的應用程序。最令人驚訝的是，這款TalkBox應用程序——僅支援英語一種語言——已經(jīng)成為了中國排名首位的社交網(wǎng)路類應用程序。