Android Dominates, But Future Is Unclear
Android稱霸市場 前景不明
By Farhad Manjoo

In 2005, Google bought a tiny mobile software company named Android, and almost nobody in the technology industry saw its potential – not even Eric Schmidt, Google’s chairman and then chief executive. “One day Larry and Sergey bought Android, and I didn’t even notice,” Mr. Schmidt told reporters in 2009, referring to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s founders.
2005年，Google買下一家稱為Android的小小的行動軟體公司，科技界幾乎沒有人看到它的潛力，連當時兼任Google執行長的董事長艾瑞克．施密特也沒看出來。施密特2009年對記者說：「有一天賴利和謝爾蓋買下Android，我甚至沒注意到。」他指的是Google創辦人賴利．佩吉和謝爾蓋．布林。

It was a joke. Android reportedly cost at least $50 million, a big enough sum for the chief to get involved. But the joke suggests how little regard even Google’s executives held for Android, the software that runs smartphones, tablets and other machines.
這是玩笑話。據說Android要價至少5,000萬美元，數字大到執行長不會不介入。但這個玩笑話透露，連Google高層都不重視Android，這個操作智慧型手機、平板電腦和其他裝置的軟體。

But in an era ruled by portable computers, Android has become essential to Google’s future. It is the globe’s most popular smartphone operating system. More than a billion Android devices were sold in 2014, according to the research firm Gartner. About one of every two computers sold today is running Android.
不過，在這個攜帶式電腦主宰的年代，Android攸關Google的前途。它是全球最受歡迎的智慧型手機作業系統。根據研究公司顧能公司的資料，2014年採用Android的裝置銷售量超過10億台。今天售出的電腦半數採用Android。

Yet Google may be losing its hold over the operating system. Android faces increasing competition from hungry rivals, including upstart smartphone makers in developing countries that are pushing their own heavily modified take on the software. There are also threats from Apple, which has said that its recent record number of iPhone sales came, in part, thanks to people switching from Android.
不過，Google可能正在失去作業系統方面的優勢。Android面臨來自飢渴對手日益激烈的競爭，包括開發中國家新創立的智慧型手機製造商，他們推動採用經過大幅改良的Android版本。還有來自蘋果的威脅，蘋果表示，最近iPhone銷量創新高，部分原因是有些人從Android改用蘋果的作業系統。

Despite surging sales, profits in the Android smartphone business declined 44 percent in 2014, according to the independent analyst Chetan Sharma. Over the holidays last year, according to the research firm Strategy Analytics, Apple took in nearly 90 percent of the profits in the smartphone business.
獨立分析師查滕．夏爾瑪說，雖然Android智慧型手機在2014年銷售額激增，但獲利下滑44%。根據「策略分析」研究公司的資料，在去年耶誕假期的智慧型手機銷售，近九成的利潤落入了蘋果的口袋。

Google faces several major Android-related headaches. First, while Google makes most of its revenue from advertising, Android has so far been unsuccessful compared with Apple’s iOS, whose users tend to have more money and spend more time on their phones (and are, thus, more valuable to advertisers).
Google面臨幾個與Android有關的主要頭痛問題。首先，Google營收主要來自廣告，但比起蘋果的iOS作業系統，Android在廣告營收方面仍難望其項背，iOS的用戶更有錢，花更多時間滑手機（因此對廣告客戶的價值更高）。

Because Google pays billions to Apple to make its search engine the default search provider for iOS devices, the company collects much more from ads placed on Apple devices than from ads on Android devices. A recent analysis by Goldman Sachs estimated that Google collected about $11.8 billion on mobile search ads in 2014, with about 75 percent coming from ads on iPhones and iPads.
由於Google付給蘋果數十億美元，讓它的搜尋引擎成為iOS裝置預設的搜尋供應者，Google從蘋果裝置獲得的廣告收入比從Android裝置多。高盛最近的分析估計，Google在2014年的行動裝置廣告收入約為118億美元，其中75%來自iPhone和iPad的廣告。

A brighter spot for Google is the revenue it collects from sales via Android’s app store, called Google Play. For years, Android apps were a backwater, but sales have picked up lately. In 2014, Google Play sold about $10 billion in apps, of which Google kept about $3 billion (the rest was paid to developers). Sales from Apple’s App Store exceeded $14 billion in 2014.
Google比較光明的一個亮點，是來自Android應用軟體app商店Google Play的營收。2014年Google約售出100億美元的app，Google可拿到30億美元（其餘付給開發商）。蘋果App商店2014年的營業額超過140億美元。

Google’s app revenue is growing, and it is investing heavily to ensure that continues. Purnima Kochikar, business development director for Google Play, said her team supporting Android app makers grew “by 15 times” in the last two and a half years.
Google的app營收正在成長，Google並藉大量投資以確保它能繼續成長。Google Play業務開發總監普尼瑪．科奇卡說，她手下支援app開發商的團隊，規模在過去兩年半成長了「15倍」。

Because these start-ups don’t make much profit selling phones, they’re all looking to make money in apps offering services, like mail and messaging, that compete with Google’s own moneymaking apps.
Google把Android免費送給手機製造商的策略，導致手機業的新成員激增，有些廠商降價銷售高品質的手機。由於這些新創公司賣手機獲利不多，他們指望靠提供服務的app賺錢，像是郵件和簡訊，與Google本身賺錢的app競爭。

The situation is especially painful for Google in China, where Google’s apps are blocked. Even in the rest of Asia, where many low-cost phone manufacturers do include Google’s apps on their phones, there’s growing interest in finding an alternative to Google’s version of Android. To address this problem, last year the company began a program, Android One, to get its services on high-quality, low-priced phones in the developing world.
這種情況讓Google在中國大陸尤其痛苦，當地封鎖Google的app。即便在亞洲其他地方，許多低價手機製造商確實把Google的app設定在他們的手機裡，但尋找Google的Android版本的替代品的興趣漸增。為了因應這個問題，Google去年展開Android One計畫，把它的服務軟體置於開發中國家的低價、高品質手機上。

The final threat for Google’s Android may be the most pernicious: People who adopted Android as their first smartphone move on to something else. In the long run, the rise of Android switching sets up a terrible path for Google – losing the high-end of the smartphone market to the iPhone, while the low end is under greater threat from noncooperative Android players.
Google的Android面對的最後一個威脅可能也是最要命的：第一支智慧型手機採用Android系統的人改用其他系統。長期而言，不再用Android的人增多，為Google鋪下可怕的道路：在高檔手機市場輸給iPhone，低端市場又面臨不合作的Android廠商的更大威脅。

Android has always been a tricky strategy; now, after finding huge success, it seems only to be getting even trickier.
Android一向是詭譎的策略；如今，在獲得巨大成功後，似乎變得更加詭譎。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/technology/personaltech/a-murky-road-ahead-for-android-despite-market-dominance.html

2015-06-16聯合報/G9版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 田思怡譯 原文參見紐時週報七版右