乐视美国旧金山盛大首秀遇意外
LeEco, the Chinese tech group, announced its arrival in the US at a splashy but haphazard event in San Francisco on Wednesday, unveiling a suite of connected TVs, smartphones and a new video streaming service, as well as concepts for a virtual reality headset and electric cars and bikes.
中国科技集团乐视(LeEco)周三在旧金山举行了一场盛大但略带波折的落地美国发布会。乐视在会上揭幕了互联网电视、智能手机和新的视频流服务，以及概念款虚拟现实头盔、电动汽车和自行车。
However, LeEco’s planned climax to its two-hour press conference had to be scrapped at the last minute after one of its prototype electric cars was involved in a crash during its drive from Los Angeles to San Francisco.
但乐视为这场两小时新闻发布会设计的高潮在最后一分钟却不得不放弃。一辆原型电动车在从洛杉矶运往旧金山的途中遇到了一场车祸。
Another prototype was flown over from London, where it is appearing in a forthcoming Transformers movie directed by Michael Bay, but the flight was delayed, missing the beginning of the show.
另一辆原型车用飞机从伦敦调运——这部原型车会出现在即将上映的由迈克尔.贝(Michael Bay)执导的《变形金刚》(Transformers)中——但由于航班推迟，错过了发布会开场。
Instead of being driven on stage by an autonomous car, LeEco’s founder YT Jia ran up on foot.
乐视创始人贾跃亭原本计划乘坐电动汽车登台，结果改成跑上台。
Our path to development [of the company] has been full of obstacles, he joked in Chinese. It shouldn’t be me who is running out here because that is really not too exciting.
他用中文开玩笑道：LeEco的发展之路充满坎坷……我不该跑出来的，这样真的不够刺激。
The prototype Le SEE car, which has adjustable seating and a steering wheel that disappears into its dashboard, arrived later and was shown to attendees after the stage show ended.
Le SEE原型电动车于稍晚时间抵达，并在发布会结束后向观众展示。这款车拥有可调节座椅，方向盘隐于仪表盘中。
LeEco said last month that it had raised $1bn for its electric car venture alone.
乐视上月表示仅电动汽车项目就筹集到10亿美元资金。
It is also partnering with US-based Faraday Future, a secretive but well-funded developer of autonomous cars in which it is also an investor, to build LeEco’s mobile and content services into Faraday’s vehicles.
乐视还与美国公司法拉第未来(Faraday Future)合作，计划将乐视的移动和内容服务嵌入法拉第未来的车辆中。法拉第未来是一家神秘但资金充足的自动驾驶汽车开发商，乐视也投资了法拉第未来。
Despite LeEco’s own car failing to appear on stage, Mr Jia revealed that Faraday Future would perhaps unveil its first production car in January at the Consumer Electronics Show.
尽管乐视电动车未能现身舞台，贾跃亭透露法拉第未来或许会在1月份消费电子展(Consumer Electronics Show)上发布首款量产电动车。
That announcement appeared to come as a surprise to a Faraday Future executive sitting in the audience, who was shown shaking his head and seeming to gesture to Mr Jia that he did not want the news — shared privately before the stage show began — made public.
贾跃亭宣布这一消息时，坐在观众席里的法拉第未来的一名高管面露诧异，他摇了摇头，似乎示意贾跃亭他不想将该消息公之于众。
The executive smiled politely as Mr Jia, addressing the audience in Chinese, went ahead anyway.
发布会开始前该消息在私下传过。不过贾跃亭继续用中文对观众讲了下去，这名高管也礼貌地微笑着。
LeEco is the latest Chinese consumer electronics group to cross the Pacific, following DJI’s drones, Xiaomi’s smart TV boxes and mobile accessories, Yi’s action cameras and Huami’s fitness trackers.
乐视是最新一家跨越太平洋的中国消费电子集团，此前进军美国市场的有大疆创新科技有限公司(DJI)的无人机，小米(Xiaomi)智能电视盒子及移动配件，小蚁(Yi)运动相机和华米(Huami)健身追踪器。
With its broad challenge to Apple, Google, Samsung and Amazon, LeEco claims that its differentiator is providing a consistent experience across its ecosystem of devices.
乐视对苹果(Apple)、谷歌(Google)、三星(Samsung)和亚马逊(Amazon)形成全面挑战，该公司声称自己与众不同的地方是让用户在由其各种设备构成的整个生态系统中拥有无缝链接的体验。
It is also aggressive on pricing with its LeMall ecommerce store, which will sell a 7ft ultra-high-definition television for $5,000 and a flagship smartphone for $400, with extra discounts offered through its LeRewards loyalty programme.
此外乐视商城(LeMall)在定价方面做法大胆，该平台将推出每台5000美元的7英尺超高清电视，以及每部400美元的旗舰智能手机，并将通过LeRewards忠诚用户计划提供额外折扣。
The ambition is eye-watering but history shows that breaking into the US market is a fearsome task, said Ben Wood, analyst at CCS Insight.
此番雄心令人折服，但历史表明，进军美国市场是一项艰巨任务，技术咨询公司CCS Insight的分析师本.伍德(Ben Wood)说，他们将不得不烧掉天量资金才能有一定作为。
They will have to spend ridiculous amounts of money to move the needle. Rob Chandhok, LeEco’s chief R&D officer for North America, said the company was reconstructing the value chain of electronics and media, while providing a more elegant and intuitive bridge that will solve the problem of a fragmented user experience.
乐视北美首席研发官罗伯.钱德霍克(Rob Chandhok)表示，乐视正在重构电子产品与媒体的价值链，同时提供一座更优雅、直观的桥梁来解决用户体验分散的问题。
However, Mr Wood said that consumers may find the large number of different LeEco products and brands confusing, despite the very punchy pricing.
然而，伍德称，消费者或许会觉得乐视大量不同的产品和品牌令人迷惑，尽管定价非常有力度。
LeEco’s online video service in China has 730m users and it has sold 70m smartphones there in the past year.
在中国，乐视的在线视频服务拥有7.3亿用户，并且乐视在过去一年销售了7000万部智能手机。
To prepare for its US move, it recently acquired US television set manufacturer Vizio for $2bn and purchased 49 acres of office space in Silicon Valley from Yahoo, where it intends to house 12,000 employees.
为进军美国，乐视最近还斥资20亿美元收购了美国彩电制造商Vizio，并在硅谷从雅虎(Yahoo!)手中购买了49英亩的办公场所，计划容纳1.2万名员工。
Executives from film studio Lionsgate, media group Vice and chipmaker Qualcomm appeared on stage at Wednesday’s event.
狮门影业(Lionsgate)、传媒集团Vice以及芯片制造商高通(Qualcomm)都有高管现身周三发布会的舞台。
Each is providing content and technology to LeEco.
这几家公司都在为乐视提供内容和技术。
Mr Jia said America was LeEco’s top priority before expanding to the rest of the world.
贾跃亭表示，美国是乐视在全球最为重要的市场，只有成功打开美国市场，乐视才能进军世界其他地区。
Some say that LeEco is the Chinese Netflix and some say that it is Apple, Others say LeEco is crazy to come to the back yard of these companies to get their piece of the pie on, Netflix, Tesla and Disney all together, he said.
他说：有人说，LeEco是中国的奈飞(Netflix)，也有人说，LeEco是苹果＋特斯拉(Tesla)＋亚马逊＋奈飞＋迪士尼(Disney)等等，还有人说，今天LeEco居然要来到这些伟大公司的主场打擂，肯定是疯了……
The path is long and arduous — but isn’t the meaning of life perpetually trying to explore the unknowns of the world?
前路漫漫，荆棘重重，但，生命的全部意义不就在于永不停歇地去探索未知世界吗？
