科技前沿:Droid:iPhone真正的競爭對手
【英文原文】
The Droid: Serious iPhone competition
Just in time to rain on Apple's (AAPL) 2009 earnings report, a prime-time TV ad and a series of well-timed leaks have put the spotlight on Motorola's (MOT) Droid — a yet-unreleased smartphone that is being described by sources who have played with a prototype as the iPhone's first serious competitor.
The ad, which premiered Saturday during the Yankees-Angels pennant game, is pasted below the fold. The challenge to Apple couldn't be less subtle; it's a series of "iDon't" screens listing key features the iPhone doesn't have — from a physical keyboard to interchangeable batteries — that the Droid does.
The leaks are being funneled primarily through the Boy Genius Report, a blog with unusually good sources in the telecommunications industry. On Friday the site published an illustrated walk-through of Google's (GOOG) Android 2.0 — the new and reportedly much improved version of the open-source operating system that powers the Droid. Then, overnight Monday, Boy Genius posted a hands-on review — complete with photo gallery — that describes it as "the Android device to beat, and easily the most impressive."
"From what we’ve been told," BGR writes, "Google had a direct hand in the Motorola Droid. Something to the point of almost dictating every move Motorola made when designing and making the phone."
The Droid is still vaporware; no release date has been set, although Verizon (VZ) said two weeks ago that it would release two Android phones before the end of the year, and the cryptic clock on a new Verizon/Motorola Droid promotional site has been decoded and appears to be counting down to Oct. 30.
Verizon, meanwhile, seems to be playing both sides of the latest smartphone war. Several blogs reported over the weekend that Apple has begun testing the iPhone on Verizon's so-called LTE (Long Term Evolution) 4G network, scheduled for initial deployment this fall and broader rollout in 2010.
The same sources suggest that Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam, who is said to have flown to Mountain View, Calif., every other week in recent months for meetings with Google executives, may have also been making secret visits to Apple's Cupertino headquarters, less than 9 miles away.
【中文翻譯】
一則黃金時段的電視廣告和一連串時機正好的消息走漏使摩托羅拉（Motorola）的Droid——這款智能手機尚未發售，不過把玩過原型機的知情人士稱它是iPhone首個真正的競爭對手——獲得了公衆注意，剛好搶走了蘋果（Apple）2009年財務報告的風頭。
那則廣告在上週六洋基隊（Yankees）對天使隊（Angels）的錦標賽中初次播放。其中對蘋果的挑戰顯露無遺；它是一系列"iDon't"屏幕，列舉了Droid具備而iPhone不具備的關鍵功能——從物理鍵盤到可更換電池。
消息走漏主要是通過一個名爲Boy Genius Report的博客，此博客在電信行業擁有極好的消息來源。上週五，該博客公佈了關於谷歌（Google）Android 2.0——它是爲Droid提供動力的開放源碼操作系統新版本，據報道它較之前一版有很大改進——的演示圖片。隨後，在本週一晚上，Boy Genius發佈了一篇實際操作的評論——帶有圖片展示——將其描述爲“勝出的Android設備，而且很可能是最令人印象深刻的一款”。
BGR寫道：“據我們瞭解，谷歌與摩托羅拉Droid有直接關係。差不多是指示了摩托羅拉在設計和製造該手機時的每一步”。
Droid仍然是霧件（vaporware）；尚未確定發佈日期，不過Verizon於兩週前表示將在年前發佈兩款Android手機，而且新的Verizon/摩托羅拉Droid推廣網站上的祕密時鐘被破譯，它似乎正在倒數至10月30日。
與此同時，Verizon似乎正在最近的智能手機大戰中兩面討好。上週末，有好幾個博客報道蘋果開始在Verizon所謂的長期演進（LTE, Long Term Evolution）4G網絡上測試iPhone，該網絡預定於今秋進行最初部署，並於2010年進行更廣泛的首次展示。
同樣是上面這些博客表示，Verizon Wireless首席執行官勞維爾•邁克亞當（Lowell McAdam）——據說近幾個月他每隔一週都會飛往加州山景城與谷歌的高管會面——可能也在祕密拜訪不足9英里外的蘋果庫比提諾總部
