Smartphone shopping often comes down to a choice of Apple’s iPhone or one powered by Google’s Android software.
說到選購智慧型手機，最難決定的往往是究竟要買蘋果的iPhone，還是使用谷歌Android軟體的廠牌。

But now consumers can get an iPhone and fill it with Google.
現在可好了，消費者可以購買iPhone，然後將它裝滿谷歌。

Google has become one of the most prolific and popular developers of apps for the iPhone, in effect helping its competitor make more appealing products.
谷歌已成為iPhone應用程式最多產、人氣最夯的開發商之一，實際上也有效協助了自己的對手開發更迷人的產品。

While some of its Internet services were built into the iPhone from the start, Google has stepped up its presence in the last eight months, delivering major new iPhone apps or improving old ones. It also has expanded efforts to hire developers to make more.
儘管谷歌提供的的部分網路服務是一開始就內建在iPhone中，谷歌在過去的8個月裡，仍不斷強化自己的陣勢，提供新的iPhone主要應用程式，或是將舊的加以改良。谷歌還聘用更多人才研發更多產品。

Google’s strategy may look self-defeating. But experts say it is simply acknowledging that there is an enormous market of avid iPhone users it wants to reach, an audience that is a target for ads and that can yield data that will allow Google to improve the online products that produce much of its profits.
谷歌的策略看似搬磚頭砸自己的腳。然而專家指出，這不過是谷歌承認了一個事實，iPhone迷是個它想要接觸的龐大市場，這批人是廣告鎖定的目標觀眾，還可提供數據資料，供谷歌用以改善已成為公司主要獲利來源的網路產品。

Google’s support for the iPhone also looks like a win for Apple, which makes money when it sells an iPhone that is used to gain access to Google services.
谷歌支援iPhone，蘋果看來也是贏家，出售可取得谷歌服務的iPhone，讓蘋果賺了大錢。

But iPhone users who spend much of their time in Google apps could deprive Apple of valuable data it needs to improve its own online services like maps. And those apps could help Google build a deeper connection with users that makes them more likely to switch to Android smartphones later.
然而iPhone使用者花許多時間在谷歌應用程式上，會讓蘋果無法取得用以改善地圖等自身網路服務的寶貴資料。而這些應用程式卻可幫助谷歌與使用者建立更深的聯繫，也讓使用者日後更可能改用Android系統的智慧手機。

“The best way to recruit users to those devices is to get them using the services,” said Chris Silva, a mobile analyst at Altimeter Group, a tech industry research business. “Find them where they are, get them using the services and ramp them up so when they have devices equivalent to the iPhone, they are already in the market.”
高科技產業研究業者「測高儀集團」的行動通訊分析師席瓦說：「招攬手機裝置使用者的最佳方式，是讓他們使用那些服務。找出使用者，讓他們使用這些服務，並讓他們逐漸習慣，當業者自己推出與iPhone相當的裝置時，這些人已成為潛在的買主。」

Stephen Stetelman, a real estate agent in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, is an iPhone user whose loyalties are divided. He said the first thing he did when he got a new iPhone was to download all of Google’s major apps, including Gmail, Chrome and Google Maps – which he said he considered better than the comparable Apple apps that came with the phone.
密西西比州哈蒂斯堡市房地產經紀人史泰特曼使用iPhone，但是他的忠誠度是分屬兩邊的。他說，他拿到新iPhone後，第一件事是下載谷歌的應用程式，包括Gmail，Chrome網路瀏覽器和谷歌地圖，他說他認為這些應用程式比iPhone手機內附的蘋果應用程式要來得好用。

“It’s a little ironic,” Mr. Stetelman said. “But I think honestly the grace of Apple is in their design and in their hardware. As far as online services and applications and stuff, I think Google is still top of the line.”
史泰特曼說：「說來有點可笑，但是我真的認為，蘋果的強項是他們的設計和硬體。網路服務、應用程式之類的東西，還是谷歌第一。」

Early in the iPhone era, Steven P. Jobs, the Apple’s former chief executive, who died in October 2011, did not want Apple to approve any apps for the device that replaced its core functions, one former senior Apple employee said.
蘋果一名前高層員工說，iPhone年代初期，2011年10月去世的蘋果前執行長賈伯斯並不希望蘋果批准可取代其手機核心功能的任何應用程式。

Eventually, under scrutiny from federal regulators, Apple began allowing apps for the iPhone, like Web browsers, that competed with important built-in apps.
最後在聯邦監管機構檢視下，蘋果開始允許應用程式進入iPhone，例如會與蘋果內建重要應用程式競爭的網路瀏覽器。

But Apple’s decision to also stop including Google services on its devices forced Google to quickly ramp up its own software development for Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS. It had to hire outsiders to help quickly design a Google Maps app for the iPhone. One result: The app widely praised by technology reviewers, was downloaded more than 10 million times in the 48 hours after its release last December, Jeff Huber, a Google senior vice president, said.
不過，蘋果同時決定將許多谷歌服務排除在外，迫使谷歌快速強化他們的蘋果手機作業系統iOS的軟體開發。谷歌被迫聘用外人，協助他們快速設計可供iPhone使用的一套谷歌地圖應用程式。谷歌資深副總裁胡柏說，結果之一是：這項廣獲科技評論員好評的應用程式去年12月問世後，48小時內下載人次就破了千萬。

Chris Hulbert, a freelance programmer who spent three months working for Google in Australia last year, wrote a blog post in which he compared working on iOS apps there to “working behind enemy lines.”
去年在谷歌澳洲公司服務的自由程式設計師赫伯特，寫了一篇部落格文章，把自己在那裡設計蘋果iOS應用程式比作搞「敵後工作」。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/14/technology/google-gains-from-creating-apps-for-the-opposition.html

2013-02-05聯合報/G5版/UNITEDDAILYNEWS 王麗娟譯 原文參見紐時週報八版下