武装你安卓系统技术思想.doc

Googles purchase of Motorola Mobility谷歌收购摩托罗拉Arming Android 武装安卓Aug 15th 2011, 19:56 by L.S. | LONDON SHOCK. Bombshell. Incredible. Even seasoned observers of the technology industry could not hide their surprise when it was announced on Monday, August 15th, that Google, the online giant, would buy Motorola Mobility, a maker of handsets and other electronic devices, for a whopping $12.5 billion. The deal not only comes as a surprise, it will have a big impact on the mobile industry, too.震惊，重磅消息，难以置信。8月15日，周一当宣布互联网巨头谷歌将以125亿美元巨资收购手持设备和其它电子设备制造商摩托罗拉移动公司时，即使是一个关注技术界的老手也难以掩饰自身的惊讶。这项收购不仅令人震惊，而且也将会对移动产业产生巨大的影响。For starters, the merger is very good news for the shareholders of Motorola Mobility, among them Carl Icahn, the activist investor. The offer$40 a share in cashis 63% above the closing price of Motorola Mobilitys shares on Friday. It is unlikely that shareholders would have got such a price on the open market any time soon. Although Motorola Mobility, which was only spun-off from Motorola in January, has staged something of a turnaround, it is still too small to compete with much bigger rivals such as Apple, Nokia and Samsung. Since March its shares had been trading below their issue price of $25.首先，此次并购对摩托罗拉移动的股东们来说是个好消息。Carl Icahn就是股东中一个活跃的投资人。每股40美元的收购价要比周五摩托罗拉移动的收盘价高出63%。未来任何时候的开发市场股东们都不太可能得到如此高的价格。尽管1月份，摩托罗拉移动就从摩托罗拉公司分离出来，呈现扭转势头，但仍然太小无法与像苹果，诺基亚，三星等强大的对手竞争。自3月份来，其股价就一直低于发行价25美元。As for Google, although it will spend about one-third of its cash on the biggest acquisition in its 13-year history, it will also get a lot: plenty of ammunition in the ongoing battle between mobile platforms. Android, Googles operating system for smartphones and other mobile devices, has taken the world by storm. In America it now powers nearly 40% of new smartphones, outdoing the platforms of Apple and RIM, the maker of BlackBerry smartphones. Worldwide more than 150m Android devices have been activated, a number that is growing by more than half a million every day.至于谷歌，尽管花了其收入的1/3来完成了13年中最大的收购，但是其将来的收益是可观的：在当前硝烟四起的移动平台竞争中有了充足的弹药。安卓是谷歌为智能手机和其它移动设备提供的操作系统，已经席卷全球。现今在美国近乎40%的新智能手机的操作系统为安卓，胜过苹果和黑莓智能手机制造商RIM的平台。全世界1.5亿移动设备已启用了安卓系统，而这一数字也在以每天50万部的速度在增长。Yet the Android “ecosystem”, as geeks call it, is also facing growing challenges. For one, the operating system has yet to make much headway in the market for computing tablets, mainly because Android devices are still not as user-friendly as Apples iPad. More importantly, although Google does not charge for Android, it is becoming increasingly costly for handset-makersbecause rivals claim it infringes on intellectual property owned by other firms. In early 2010 HTC, one of the leading vendors of Android devices, agreed to pay royalties to Microsoft for the use of its patents ($5 per device, according to some estimates). And in July Apple won a legal victory against HTC in a patent infringement suit, which could lead to even higher payments.不过安卓的正如电脑高手称之的“生态系统”也面临着挑战。其中一个就是，该操作系统没有在计算机平板市场取得很大的进展，主要原因是安卓设备仍没有苹果iPad那样用户界面友好。更重要的是，虽然谷歌没对安卓收费，但是它对手持设备制造商来说正变得越来越昂贵-因为竞争对手认为谷歌侵犯了其他公司所持有的知识产权。2010年初，安卓设备领头商HTC同意支付微软版税使用其公司的专利（据估计，每个设备5美元）而7月份，苹果公司在HTC专利侵权诉讼中胜诉，这导致了该公司更高的版税支付。Taking over Motorola will help Google to overcome both of these problems. Owning a handset-maker allows the firm to integrate software and hardware more smoothly. It should not only be able to deliver more competitive Android tablets, but speed up the development of other sorts of consumer electronics (Motorola Mobility also sells television set-top boxes). In addition, Google will gain control of Motorolas huge portfolio of intellectual property, which includes 17,000 patents worldwide. This will give Googleand, indirectly, makers of Android devicesa much better bargaining position in current and future legal battles, which include litigation brought by Oracle, a software firm, over Androids use of Java, a software technology.收购摩托罗拉有助于谷歌解决这两个问题。拥有一家手持设备制造商使得公司能更顺利地进行软硬件整合。不仅能够推出更具竞争力的安卓平板电脑，而且能加速其它消费电子产品的研发（摩托罗拉移动还销售电视机顶盒）此外，谷歌也获得了摩托罗拉庞大的知识产权组合，包括全世界的17000项专利。这会给谷歌-间接地给与其安卓设备制造商在当前和未来的司法争斗中有更为有利的谈判地位。包括软件公司Oracle起诉安卓使用其公司的软件技术Java. Although Motorola Mobilitys shares soared close to the price offered by Google, suggesting that the market thinks that the takeover will succeed, it could still hit snags. Another suitor may emerge, possibly Oracle. Antitrust authorities on both sides of the Atlantic, which already have Google in their sights, will certainly take a close look, although it seems unlikely that they will block the merger. More fundamentally, the acquisition could discourage other handset-makers from using Android for their devices if they worry that Motorola will gain an unfair advantage. To allay such fears, Google has said that it will run Motorola as a separate business and that it will not change in any way how it manages Android.虽然摩托罗移动的股价高涨近乎于谷歌的收购价，暗示着市场认为此次收购将会取得成功，但是仍然会遇到麻烦。另一个诉讼者可能会出现，而这又可能是Oracle。大西洋两岸的反托拉斯权威当然会对其仔细审视，而且谷歌早就进入了他们的视野。尽管他们不太有可能会阻止这次并购。最根本的是，如果其他手持设备制造商担心摩托罗拉将会获得谷歌的不正当优势，那么这次收购反倒会阻碍其他手持设备制造商使用安卓作为其设备的操作系统。为了消除此种担心，谷歌已经表示摩托罗拉移动将会作为单独得公司运行，而且谷歌将不会对安卓的管理作出任何改变。Even if the merger, as so many before it, turns out to be a costly mistake, it is another sign that the market for smartphones and other mobile devices will end up looking different from the personal-computer industry. Whereas with PCs operating systems were developed by one set of companies (mostly Microsoft) and the machines by another (Dell, HP, Acer), mobile devices seem to demand a deeper integration of software and hardware, delivered by a single firm. This has always been Apples approach. HP also has its own mobile operating system, WebOS.