【英语科技】谷歌打造“数字生活帝国” Google spreads its Android net in digital empire building

Google and Apple hold their annual technology showcase events a month apart in the same hall in San Francisco. But nobody attending Google’s developer conference this week would have been in any danger of thinking they had stumbled into the rival event by mistake.

Responding to Google’s appeal to their inner geek, developers at the show on Wednesday pieced together do-it-yourself virtual reality headsets from cardboard kits, or edged around a cordoned-off area holding tablets displaying 3D renderings of the objects around them.

Beneath the science-project feel, however, there was no mistaking the more pragmatic empire-building that was at work. With the smartphone wars entering a new phase, Google and Apple are about to take their battle to a wider range of connected, everyday objects.

The news from Google this week included the first smartwatches that run on its Android Wear platform. The devices, from Samsung and LG, went on sale on Wednesday, with one from Motorola due this summer.

Also on display for the first time were new software platforms called Android Auto, pictured, and Android TV, which promise to take Google’s software and services on to a wider array of screens. In some cases, these new pieces of connected hardware will link up to their users’ smartphones, drawing on apps already running on the handsets.

The watches pre-empted Apple’s expected launch this year of an iWatch, although when it comes to TV set-top boxes and cars, the search company is following in its rival’s footsteps.

“It’s about getting Android as far and wide as possible,” said Ben Wood, an analyst at CCS Insight. By placing their software in more devices, tech companies are not only establishing positions in new markets, they are also defending their flanks against attack and tying users more tightly to their technologies.

“Google, at the end of the day, is a data company,” said Jordan Edelson, chief executive of Appetizer Mobile, an app development company. “Now they will have many more platforms to track people across.”

“It makes sense to have a unified platform if you’ve got these disparate devices – your TV, your watch, even your car,” said Arian Maleki, a software development manager from office equipment company Avery. The alternative would involve modifying apps to run on incompatible systems developed by the different car companies or makers of wearable devices.

Developers at the show welcomed the promise of a common software foundation that makes it easier to write apps capable of running, with minimal adaptation, on many kinds of devices.

“When you’re a big company trying to get your content out to the masses, it becomes expensive,” said Mr Maleki.

Yet in their rush to occupy new territory, Google and Apple are plunging headlong into markets that, in some cases, have not yet formed, and where they have slipped up before.

“They’re dipping their toes into multiple areas that are already crowded and highly complex,” said Mr Wood. “Many are nascent areas where it isn’t clear yet what the end game will be, but they have to participate.”

The connected TV landscape, for instance, is already littered with failures. Android TV, pictured, represents Google’s third attempt to dominate connected TV sets, and comes just before Apple is expected to revamp its Apple TV service. Yet a demonstration of the new Android TV’s capabilities did little to distinguish it from Google’s other efforts, said Richard Doherty, an analyst at Envisioneering.

It is also unclear how many app developers and consumers are ready to jump into the new markets being created.

“It’s going to be an uphill battle. There’s a lot of educating of the developer community to be done,” said Mr Edelson. Most are expected to concentrate their efforts on the smartphone market rather than “seeing how all these platforms are going to work together”. Developers would then adapt their services for maximum effect on each screen, he said.

Google, however, did show off a common design theme, dubbed Material Design, for creating apps that run on the many different pieces of Android hardware. Closely mirroring the clean, “flat” style introduced by Apple with its iOS 7 software last year, the formula is meant to bring greater coherence to the experiences of similar services on different devices.

“We’ve been here before,” said Mr Maleki. From Microsoft’s failure in smartwatches a decade ago to the first Google TV service, buyers have been slow to latch on to the promise of new connected devices. Mr Maleki was one of few developers at the show this week to sport Google Glass, the headset that was once intended as the flagship of Google’s move into wearable computing, but which has been beset by privacy concerns.

“The watch is a less controversial way of working the internet into people’s lives,” said Mr Wood.

Yet unobtrusiveness alone may not be enough to kick-start the market for wearable computing. Google promoted the new smartwatches this week as a way to receive notifications and do voice searches, reducing the number of times users reach for their smartphones each day. Unless more compelling uses are found, wearable technology like this is in danger of being seen as “a solution in search of a problem”, says Mr Wood.

Another uncertainty concerns the competitive landscape in the new smart devices markets. While the smartphone wars have seen Google and Samsung form a close alliance against Apple, for instance, Samsung has hedged its bets in smartwatches. Besides experimenting with Android Wear it has also developed its own software platform, called Tizen.

As a result, smartwatches could turn into a head-on battle between Apple and Samsung, relegating Google to a bit part, said Mr Doherty. If so, Google would be left with a serious gap in its smart devices strategy and developers would have fewer chances of making money in the Android ecosystem, he added.

None of this is about to slow Google’s headlong rush to shape the new smart devices markets, however. Laying out the company’s Android philosophy this week, Sundar Pichai, head of Google’s main software platforms, promised “a very, very fast pace” of innovation. The race is on.

6月25日，谷歌在旧金山召开了年度开发者大会(Google I/O)。一个月前，苹果(Apple)在同一个场馆召开了自己的开发者大会。

随着智能手机之战进入新阶段，谷歌和苹果正磨刀霍霍，要将战场转移至更多可联网的日常用品上。

在这次大会上，首批运行在谷歌Android Wear平台上的智能手表亮相。这些来自三星(Samsung)和LG的设备于周三开始上市销售。今年夏天，摩托罗拉也将推出一款智能手表。



此外，会上还首次展示了为汽车市场设计的名为Android Auto的新软件平台（右图），以及Android TV系统——后者能把谷歌软件和服务推送至更多种类的屏幕。一些新的互联硬件设备还能和用户的智能手机相连，并操作手机上已有的应用程序。

尽管在电视机顶盒和车载系统的发布上，谷歌还在追随其对手苹果公司的脚步，但谷歌智能手表的发布却抢在了苹果前面，后者预计将于今年推出iWatch智能手表。

CCS Insight分析师本?伍德(Ben Wood)表示：“谷歌的目的是尽可能扩大安卓系统的普及程度。”通过将软件系统安装到尽可能多的设备，高科技企业不仅能在新市场找到立足点，还能把更多用户更紧密地捆绑在它们的技术上，从而保护它们的侧翼不受攻击。

应用开发公司Appetizer Mobile首席执行官乔丹?埃德尔森表示：“从今以后，谷歌就是一家数据公司。如今，它们将拥有更多能跟踪所有人的平台。”

办公设备公司Avery软件开发经理阿里安?马利基(Arian Maleki)表示：“电视、手表甚至汽车等迥然不同的设备拥有统一应用平台是很有好处的。”否则，对于不同汽车公司或可穿戴设备制造商开发的互不兼容的系统，人们需要不停修改应用程序。

建立通用的软件平台，开发人员就能更容易开发出只需最低限度的改动就能在多种设备上运行的应用。对于这种可能性，开发大会上的开发人员表示十分欢迎。

不过，尽管谷歌和苹果纷纷抢占新领域，它们进入某些市场时并未经过认真考虑。这些市场要么还未成形，要么是它们曾遭遇滑铁卢的领域。而且，目前还不清楚有多少应用开发人员和消费者做好了投身这些初创市场的准备。

此外，还有一个不确定因素是，新智能设备的市场中将出现什么样的竞争格局。比如，虽然在智能手机之战中，谷歌和三星结成了对抗苹果的紧密同盟，三星并未在智能手机上孤注一掷。除了开展与Android Wear有关的实验，三星还自己开发了名为Tizen的智能手表软件平台。

然而，所有这一切都没有减缓谷歌打造新智能设备市场的冲动。谷歌主要软件平台主管桑德尔?皮帅(Sundar Pichai)承诺，谷歌将开展“非常非常快节奏”的创新。看来谷歌和苹果的竞赛还将继续开展下去。

译者/简易