????亞馬遜（Amazon）在圣誕節后的第二天公布了購物季熱銷商品排行榜，筆記本銷量排名第二的是華碩（Asus）變形金剛（Transformer）。這是一款Windows 8筆記本，配有可拆卸鍵盤，可以非常便捷地“變形”成平板電腦。毫無疑問，變形金剛恰恰就是微軟（Microsoft）翹首以盼的那種殺手級便攜式電子產品。

????那么，亞馬遜的這份排行榜是否對微軟完全是好消息呢？不盡然，銷量第一和第三的筆記本都與Windows無緣，大放異彩的是Chromebook。不過這款筆記本并不是什么新產品，它的一代產品上市已經有兩年時間。Chromebook是由谷歌和宏碁（Acer）、惠普（HP）、聯想（Lenovo）、三星（Samsung）等合作伙伴共同研發的輕量級上網本，是全功能筆記本的替代產品。

????Chromebook可不僅僅是傳統電腦的替代品。它們還是微軟在孜孜不倦地詆毀、攻擊的對象。Chromebook有幸成為微軟“Scroogled”戰役的重點打擊對象。所謂“Scroogled”是微軟從2012年11月開始發起的一場市場營銷活動，旨在抨擊、揭露谷歌的產品和商業戰略。微軟在抹黑Chromebook的這場大戰中大放厥詞，稱它既不能運行Windows，也不能運行Office、iTunes、photoshop等主流應用程序，如果不連接互聯網，簡直“一無是處”。

????“Scroogled”戰役的最初目標是谷歌占據統治地位的搜索引擎和飽受爭議的隱私策略。不過，就在圣誕節前，微軟轉移目標，將槍口瞄準了Chromebook。我聽到這樣的消息時不禁一頭霧水。因為Chromebook的市場行情一直很差，谷歌對此一籌莫展。

????不過，最近發生在我身邊的一則故事讓我認識到，Chromebook已成為微軟的又一根肉中刺。一邊是PC市場增長停滯，另一邊是手機和平板市場節節敗退，微軟這幾年的日子很不好過。我的兩個兒子在奧克蘭市就讀小學，前不久，我所在的教師家長協會決定購買36臺Chromebook供四年級學生使用。幾周后，學校又作出決定，再購入約70臺Chromebook，而且還計劃升級學校的WiFi網絡，以便新購入的所有筆記本能同時聯網。這意味著，只要老師同意，近半數四、五年級學生能隨時使用筆記本。

????這件事令人吃驚的地方不在于一所市區學校一次性購買了100臺Chrombook，而是根本沒人提出要購買Windows產品。就算有人提出替代方案，討論的也無外乎Mac和iPad。在學校的圖書館、多媒體實驗室和某些教室已經部署了不少Mac電腦。

????教師家長協會和學校為什么選擇Chromebook？原因一目了然。雖然Chromebook沒有Office，但內置的免費Google Docs是一款簡單易用的軟件，完全可以替代Office，滿足小學生們的需求簡直是小菜一碟。至于沒有Windows——或者說沒有Mac系統——對精打細算的教育機構來說反而是件好事。Chromebook啟動迅速，內容分享簡單，不需要升級，也無需隨時備份，整個系統能隨時保持最新狀態。當然，最值得一提的是，它的主流型號價格僅在200到300美元之間，是性價比極高的產品。【羅杰斯家庭教育基金（Rogers Family Foundation）主管混合教育的格雷格?克萊恩在教育網站edSurge發表了一篇博客，倡議奧克蘭地區的學校引入高科技教學手段。克雷恩在文中詳細列舉了學校選用Chrombook的優點?！?/p>

????當然，我們不能以偏概全，我猜測眼下依然有大量學校選擇Windows產品。不過，谷歌Chromebook顯然已經成功得手，讓我們的孩子在童年時就開始接受其軟件和服務的熏陶。老牌科技博客Verge最近發文指出，微軟之痛不在于硬件，而在于它最賺錢的軟件和服務正被谷歌的免費產品大肆鯨吞。

????現在看來，Scroogled戰役不但沒能收到成效，反而助長了谷歌的勢頭。上周，調研機構NPD報告稱，21%的筆記本，買家是商業組織、教育機構和政府機構等機構組織。NPD還指出，就在2012年，Chromebook的市場份額還“微不足道”，如今它市場份額的增速秒殺其它所有產品類別。NPD行業分析部副總裁史蒂芬?貝克在接受采訪時表示，消費者將Chromebook當作廉價PC和平板電腦的替代產品?！癈hromebook大獲成功，市場定位非常清晰?！?/p>

????截至上周，在亞馬遜網站的筆記本銷售排行榜上，華碩變形金剛已跌落至第三，排名前兩位的是宏碁和三星的Chromebook。一切都表明，過氣的是微軟，而不是谷歌。（財富中文網）

????譯者：項航

????When Amazon released its list of holiday bestsellers the day after Christmas, the second-most popular laptop was the Asus Transformer, a Windows 8 laptop with a detachable keyboard that converts into a tablet. It's just the kind of portable consumer device that Microsoft (MSFT) desperately needs to be a hit.

????So was the Amazon announcement good news for Microsoft? Not quite. As it turns out, the first- and third-bestselling laptops at Amazon over the holidays were not Windows PCs. They were Chromebooks, the stripped down, web-only machines that Google (GOOG) and partners like Acer, HP (HPQ), Lenovo, and Samsung have been peddling for two years as an alternative to full-fledged laptops.

????Chromebooks aren't just any PC alternative. They're the one Microsoft has worked hard to discredit as a mere toy. Chromebooks feature prominently in Redmond's "Scroogled" marketing campaign, a much-criticized series of attack ads on Google's products and business practices that Microsoft launched in November 2012. In the Chromebook "Scroogled" ads, actors disparage the Google-powered laptops for not being able to run Windows or popular programs like Office, iTunes, or Photoshop, and for being "pretty much a brick" when not connected to the Internet.

????The Scroogled campaign had initially targeted Google's dominant search engine and its controversial privacy practices. The new focus on Chromebooks ahead of this holiday season was a bit of a head-scratcher for me at first. After all, the Google-powered machines had struggled to gain traction with consumers.

????But a story close to home gave me reason to think that Chromebooks are the latest headache for Microsoft, which has struggled to gain traction in phones and tablets at a time when growth in the PC market has stalled. At the public elementary school that my two sons attend in Oakland, the parent teacher association, on whose board I serve, recently decided to purchase 36 Chromebooks for students in the fourth grade. A few weeks later, we received news that the school district would purchase an additional 70 or so Chromebooks -- and would upgrade the Wi-Fi in the school so all the new machines could work simultaneously. This allows half of fourth and fifth graders to work on computers at any one time, if their teachers decide it's appropriate.

????What was striking was not so much that a school in an urban district would purchase 100 Chromebooks, but that there was never any discussion of purchasing Windows machines. When an alternative to the Chromebooks was discussed, the conversation was about Macs -- of which there are several in the school library, media lab, and some classrooms -- or iPads.

????It's not hard to see why our PTA and the school district opted for Chromebooks. Sure, they don't have Office. But they do have the free Google Docs, which is an easy-to-use alternative and sufficient for most tasks required of elementary school students. As for the lack of Windows -- or for that matter MacOS -- that's actually an asset for the cost-sensitive school environment. The machines boot up immediately, they can be shared easily amongst students, they never have to be upgraded or backed up, and they are always up to date. Oh, and at prices ranging between $200 and $300 for popular models, they're more affordable than most alternatives. (In a blog post on the educational website edSurge, Greg Klein, director of blended learning at the Rogers Family Foundation, which advises the Oakland schools on technology solutions, lays out the benefits of Chromebooks in the classroom in more detail.)

????This is purely anecdotal, of course, and I suspect there are plenty of schools that are choosing Windows machines. But Google's Chromebooks are clearly making inroads, and getting an important demographic -- millennials -- hooked on their software and services at an early age. And as The Verge, a prominent tech blog, recently noted, it is Google's threat to Microsoft's lucrative software and services, more than hardware, that has Redmond worried.

????The Scroogled campaign doesn't seem to be working and may even be backfiring for Microsoft. Last week, the NPD Group reported that 21% of all notebooks sold through resellers, which are mainly purchased by organizations like businesses, educational institutions, and government agencies. In 2012, Chromebooks had a "negligible" share of the market, according to NPD, and the surge represented the largest share increase among any product category. In an interview, Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, said Chromebooks are being purchased as an alternative to both low-cost PCs and tablets. "Chomebooks have been very successful," Baker said. "There was clearly a market demand."

????By this week on Amazon.com, the Asus Transformer had slipped to No. 3 in the laptop category behind two Chromebooks from Acer and Samsung. It all suggests that the one getting Scroogled is Microsoft.