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????谷歌（Google）在上周的I/O開發者大會上進行了諸多主題展示，第二天，分析人士一致認為，蘋果（Apple）無需過度擔心谷歌在周三（6月27日）發布的硬件設備。售價299美元的Nexus Q和蘋果電視很像，但價格是后者的三倍。而售價199美元的Nexus 7平板電腦瞄準的是亞馬遜Kindle而非iPad。至于售價1500美元的谷歌眼鏡——一款增強現實型頭戴式演示設備，或許會帶來一場文化革命，以將該設備推向以時尚為導向的大眾市場。 ????不過，有一項聲明應該引起了蘋果密切關注：谷歌宣布將安卓市場（Android Marketplace）更名為谷歌play（Google play）。 ????雖然安卓平臺在智能手機銷量上遙遙領先，但在與蘋果iTunes的競爭中卻一直處于下風，這是個不爭的事實。盡管Android的應用程序數量已接近蘋果（60萬對65萬），但在其它方面，前者幾乎完敗。iTunes用戶聆聽的音樂更多；購買的應用程序更多，同時保存的時間也更長；他們觀看的廣告更多，購買的商品也更多，所創造出來的收益也遙遙領先（2012年第二財季為19億美元）。 ????一些人指出，蘋果兩周前在其全球開發者大會上公布了一條極為重要的消息：該公司已擁有4億信用卡賬號，比去年增加了一倍，已超過任何一家在線零售商，即便是亞馬遜也不得不甘拜下風。4億賬號；數十億歌曲、電影、電視劇和書籍；方便快鍵的一鍵支付以及遍布全球的存儲服務器，這一切造就了iTunes平臺無以倫比的用戶粘性。 ????所以，蘋果很可能注意到了，攜新名稱和新功能而來的谷歌play看起來和iTunes極為相似：就是一個提供休閑娛樂的一站式虛擬賣場。 ????在谷歌發布會結束僅20分鐘，一個“意外”出現了，彭博社（Bloomberg）發布了一條來自“熟知內情人士”的新聞，指出蘋果正計劃對iTunes進行全面升級。根據彭博社的說法，本次更新將是“這家全球最大的音樂商店自其 2003年首發以來的最大調整”。 ????這基本可以看作蘋果對谷歌發布會的官方反應。iTunes平臺過于臃腫，需要進行全面調整，這是眾所周知的，而蘋果正在進行此方面工作也早已不是新聞。博客9to5Mac的馬克?古爾曼早在四月就發布了此類文章（甚至還有截圖）。 ????不過，從這則新聞出現的時機可以看出，蘋果對谷歌的反擊現已正式開始。讓新平臺之戰來得更猛烈些吧！ ????譯者：項航 |
????The consensus among analysts the day after Google's (GOOG) jam-packed I/O keynote is that Apple (AAPL) doesn't have much to fear from the hardware unveiled on Wednesday. The $299 Nexus Q mimics Apple TV but at three times the cost. The $199 Nexus 7 tablet is aimed at Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle, not the iPad. And it's going to take a cultural revolution to turn Google Glass -- the company's $1,500 augmented reality head mounted display -- into a mass market line of fashion eyeware. ????But there was one announcement that should give Apple pause: The rebranding of the Android Marketplace into Google play. ????It's no secret that the Android platform -- despite its dominance in terms of smartphones sold -- has been struggling to hold its own against Apple's iTunes. Although Android has nearly caught up to Apple in the sheer number of available apps (650,000 vs. 600,000), in almost every other respect it trails far behind. iTunes users listen to more music, buy more apps, keep them longer, look at more ads, purchase more products and generate far more revenue ($1.9 billion in fiscal Q2 alone). ????Some have argued that the most important announcement Apple made at its World Wide Developers Conference two weeks ago was that the company now has 400 million credit cards on file -- double last year's total and more than any other online retailer, including Amazon. Those 400 million accounts -- and the billions of songs, movies, TV shows and books purchased with a single click and stored on millions of hard drives around the world -- are the glue that makes the iTunes platform so sticky. ????So it probably didn't escape Cupertino's notice that with its new name and new features, Google play looks an awful lot like iTunes: A one-stop virtual shopping mall for entertainment. ????And it may not be an accident that 20 minutes after the end of Google's presentation,Bloomberg ran a piece -- sourced by "people with direct knowledge of the matter" -- saying that Apple was getting ready to release an overhaul of iTunes that would mark, according to the story, "one of the largest changes to the world's biggest music store since its 2003 debut." ????It was the closest thing we're likely to get to an official Apple response to Google's keynote. The fact that the famously bloated iTunes platform needed an overhaul and that Apple has been working on one is not news. 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman had the story (with screenshots) in April. ????But timing of the leak -- if that's what it was -- suggests that the game is now officially on. Let the next platform war begin. |
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