從新版安卓系統來看，谷歌再次奮起直追蘋果
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????又到了每年的這個時候。 ????谷歌的I/O峰會于5月28日正式開幕，蘋果的全球開發者大會也將于一周半后如期舉行。兩家公司都想搶足眼球，在氣勢上壓倒對方，在渴望點擊率的科技媒體的慫恿下，各種泄密、發布和令人驚嘆的頭條即將競相登場。 ????今天是蘋果的Apple Pay，明天就會是其它什么東西。自從喬布斯稱安卓是個“偷來的產品”，并發誓要徹底毀滅它以來，幾年的時間已經過去了。這種說法雖然早已冷卻下來，但問題還是同樣的問題。谷歌的安卓就是靠復制蘋果才做出來的。它先是復制App Store做出了Google Play，現在又在復制Apple Pay來做它的Android Pay。 ????谷歌當然有很多值得敬佩的地方。我很欽佩他們勇于解決一些極為棘手的工程問題：機器學習、自動駕駛汽車和地圖繪制。谷歌繪制的地圖涵蓋全球所有道路，單單這一點就令人欽佩不已。 ????但安卓有點不一樣，它是個防御型的項目。考慮到當iPhone開始研發的時候，谷歌還在蘋果董事會有一席之位，說它有些卑鄙也不為過。 ????安卓一直沒能做得像iOS一樣好，但它也算不錯了。而且它為亞洲的許多快速追隨者們打開了一扇門，后者向市場推出了大量相似產品。 ????喬布斯當年曾經威脅要“核平”安卓，或許就是因為他預見到了這一幕。后來喬布斯向法庭討公道，但這也是個防御性的舉動。蘋果的長處在于設計一些連我們自己都沒有意識到我們需要的設備，而不是打官司、買專利，或是為了競爭而添加這樣那樣的功能。 ????據高德納公司統計，去年全球出貨的安卓設備超過了10億部，達到了蘋果出貨量的5倍。在功能和服務上，兩大平臺已形成均勢。 ????不過值得安慰的是，雖然我們不知道安卓和iOS的對拼會怎樣發展，但市場總有足夠的空間容下兩大智能手機操作系統。另外，安卓現在還在糾結怎樣賺錢的問題，而iOS早已使蘋果成了這個星球上最有價值的公司。（財富中文網） ????譯者：樸成奎 ????審校：任文科 |
????It’s that time of year again. ????Google’s I/O conference begins today and Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference follows in a week and a half. Get ready for a barrage of competing leaks, releases and screaming headlines as each company tries to upstage the other, egged on by a click-hungry tech press. ????Today it’s Apple Pay. Tomorrow it will be something else.We’ve come a long way since Steve Jobs called Android “a stolen product” and promised to destroy it. The rhetoric has cooled, but the issue is the same. Google copied Apple to make Android. It copied the App Store to make Google Play. It’s copying Apple Pay to make Android Pay. ????There’s much to admire in Google. I’m awed by their willingness to tackle truly daunting engineering problems: Machine learning, Autonomous cars. Mapping the Internet. Mapping, for that matter, the world’s roads and highways. ????But Android was something different. It was a defensive play, and a sneaky one at that, given that Google had a seat on Apple’s board of directors while the iPhone was in development. ????Android was never as good as iOS, but it was good enough. It opened the door to Asia’s fast followers, who flooded the market with me-too products. ????Jobs may have seen what was coming when he threatened to go “thermonuclear” on Android. He turned to the courts for relief, but that too was a defensive play. Apple’s strength comes from designing must-have devices we didn’t know we needed, not from filing lawsuits, buying patents or adding features to keep up with the competition. ????Last year, more than a billion Android devices were shipped, according to Gartner, five times as many as Apple. In terms of features and services, the two platforms have reached a rough parity. ????If there’s any consolation for the way Android vs. iOS turned out, it’s that there seems to be room in the market for two dominant smartphone operating systems. And while the competition is still trying to figure out how to make money from Android, iOS has made Apple the most valuable company on the planet. |
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