经济学人下载:谷歌收购摩托罗拉

This tactic has put a price on Android, which Google gives away free. In early 2010 HTC, a leading vendor of Android devices, agreed to pay royalties to Microsoft for the use of its patents. And in July Apple won a legal victory against HTC which could lead to even higher payments.

安卓本由Google免费发布，但两家公司的这一策略给安卓系统标上了价码。2010年初，安卓设备头号供应商HTC同意向微软支付专利费，同年7月，苹果打赢了与HTC的官司，这会让HTC支付更高的费用。

Google’s acquisition also illustrates the second difference between the markets for PCs and mobile devices: the latter will be more vertically integrated. Apple’s big advantage is controlling all parts of its products, from the user interface to the processor. It is thus able to fine-tune them, for instance to keep power consumption low or make touch screens react faster. Most devices powered by Android are not as highly optimised—which helps to explain why Android tablets, for instance, have yet to catch up with Apple’s iPad.

Google的收购还阐明了PC市场与移动设备市场的第二个不同之处：后者更倾向于垂直整合。苹果的主要优势在于它控制着产品的一切，从用户界面到处理器。因此，苹果可以精细调整其产品，比如保持低耗电量或让触屏反应更迅速。而大部分安卓设备则做不到如此高度的优化，以安卓平板电脑为例，这也许就是它还赶不上苹果iPad的原因。

Owning a handset-maker allows Google to better integrate software and hardware. At the same time, the firm cannot copy Apple’s model completely. If it is seen to favour Motorola’s products, other device makers might abandon Android. This would defeat the operating system’s purpose: making sure that Google’s services—and thus its lucrative advertisements—make it onto as many mobile displays as possible. When Google’s bosses announced the merger, they took great care to explain that they would run Motorola as a separate business and not change the way in which Android was managed.

拥有一家手机制造企业可以让Google更好地整合软件和硬件，同时，也不能完全照搬苹果的模式。如果其他设备制造商认为安卓偏向于摩托罗拉的产品，也许就会弃安卓而去。这有违该操作系统的初衷：务必让Google的服务尽可能多地出现在移动设备上，从而为其带来利润丰厚的广告业务。Google的老板在宣布这次收购时，就极力澄清说摩托罗拉会单独运作，他们不会改变安卓的管理模式。

Carolina Milanesi of Gartner, a market-research firm, expects Google to use Motorola to build benchmark models for Android devices to help others improve their products. The industry is moving towards a similar set-up. As part of a co-operation agreement with Nokia, Microsoft is using the Finnish company as its hardware-maker of reference.

市场研究公司Gartner的卡罗琳娜 米拉内西Carolina Milanesi估计，Google会用摩托罗拉打造一个安卓设备的标准模板，以帮助其他制造商改进各自的产品。移动行业正逐步走向标准化，微软已与诺基亚达成合作协议，所有硬件制造商的产品都以这家芬兰公司的硬件为准。