中國智慧手機業嚴重依賴 Google/ 歐盟委員會：微軟要上繳數億歐元罰金

 中國希望自主研發手機操作系統
中國工信部下屬智庫稱﹐中國過於依賴安卓系統﹐指責谷歌利用安卓的市場支配地位歧視中國企業。長遠來看﹐中國可能希望研發本土操作系統﹐替代安卓。

China report warns on Google dominance

By Kathrin Hille in Beijing 

A Chinese government think-tank has warned that the country’s smartphone industry is over-reliant on Google’s Android mobile operating system and accused the US company of discriminating against local companies.

“Our country’s research and development of mobile operating systems is over-dependent on Android,” said the China Academy of Telecommunication Research in a report.
The comment echoes tensions that the growing dominance of Android has triggered among global mobile operators, who at last month’s Mobile World Congress trade show rallied behind a new mobile operating system from Mozilla Firefox in an effort to erode Apple and Google’s smartphone supremacy.
“This is not just a China problem – it is an issue that is surfacing around the world in the face of Android’s dominance,” said Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA, a Beijing-based technology consultancy.
The Chinese think-tank said that while Android was an open system, “its core technology and technology roadmap are strictly controlled by Google and our [operating systems] development companies often face commercial discrimination, delays in sharing codes and restrictions on device makers through commercial agreements”.
The observations by the institute under the Ministry for Industry and Information Technology, China’s telecoms industry regulator, are also an expression of long-held frustrations of the country’s policymakers at domestic companies’ lack of power in the global technology value chain.
In China, which overtook the US as the world’s largest smartphone market by shipments last year, Android’s market share has ballooned from just 0.6 per cent in 2009 to 86.4 per cent last year, according to the China Academy of Telecommunication Research.
A host of Chinese companies including e-commerce group Alibaba, online search firm Baidu and device maker Xiaomi, have launched their own mobile operating systems, but they are little more than customised versions of Android.
The planned joint launch last year of a smartphone by Alibaba and Acer, the Taiwanese PC vendor, was called off. Alibaba executives said at the time Google had put pressure on Acer.
Analysts said Google might have been concerned that Alibaba was trying to use basic Android technology and create a competitor system out of it.

The think-tank’s white paper lamented that Chinese developers were starting from too low a technology level, too late, had too small and weak an ecosystem and struggled to get their operating systems adopted by device makers.

The complaints by a body closely affiliated with a policymaker and regulator could raise worries that Google, which almost completely retreated from the Chinese search market in a high-profile standoff over censorship and hacking in 2010, could face new trouble in China.

However, observers believe that there is little left for Beijing to do. Applications that could help Google drive traffic such as its search engine, its map app and its gmail app are already absent from Android devices sold through official channels in China, which come with rival domestic apps instead.

Google could not be reached for comment.

中國智慧手機業被指嚴重依賴Android

英國《金融時報》 席佳琳 北京報導

中國政府的一個智庫警告稱，中國智慧手機行業過於依賴穀歌(Google)的Android移動作業系統，指控這家美國公司歧視本土企業。

“我國移動作業系統研發對Android系統存在嚴重路徑依賴，”中國工業和資訊化部電信研究院在一份報告中表示。

此言出爐之際，Android日漸明顯的主宰地位在全球移動運營商圈子裏引發了緊張。上月，在“世界移動通信大會”(Mobile World Congress)會展期間，有多家運營商支援Mozilla Firefox推出的一款新移動作業系統，以求削弱蘋果(Apple)和谷歌在智慧手機領域的絕對優勢地位。

“這並非中國特有的問題，面對Android的主導地位，這是一個正在世界各地浮出水面的問題，”北京科技諮詢公司BDA董事長鄧肯•克拉克(Duncan Clark)表示。

該中國智庫稱，儘管Android是一種開源系統，但“其核心技術和技術路線受到穀歌公司的嚴格控制，導致我國作業系統研發企業時刻面臨穀歌的商業歧視，如延遲代碼共用時間、通過商業協定制約終端企業等”。

工業和資訊化部是中國電信業監管機構，該部旗下的智庫發表這一見解，也反映了中國政策制定者長期抱有的受挫感，即本土企業在全球科技價值鏈中缺乏實力。

去年，中國智慧手機市場的發貨量超過美國，成為全球最大智慧手機市場。根據工信部電信研究院的研究，Android在中國市場所占份額已從2009年的區區0.6%，大幅增至去年的86.4%。

多家中國企業，包括電子商務集團阿裏巴巴(Alibaba)、線上搜索公司百度(Baidu)以及手機製造商小米(Xiaomi)，推出了自己的移動作業系統，但這些系統都不過是定制版本的Android。

去年，阿裏巴巴曾計畫與臺灣電腦廠商宏碁(Acer)聯手推出一款智慧手機，但後來取消了這個計畫。當時阿裏巴巴高管表示，穀歌對宏碁施加了壓力。

分析師們表示，穀歌也許擔心，阿裏巴巴正試圖利用基本的Android技術，開發一種與之競爭的作業系統。

工信部電信研究院的《移動互聯網白皮書》哀歎中國開發商的技術起點太低，起步又太晚，擁有的生態系統太小太弱，難以讓設備製造商採用自己的作業系統。

與政策制定者和監管機構關係密切的一個機構發出這些抱怨，可能引發外界擔心，即穀歌可能在中國遭遇新的麻煩。2010年，穀歌在圍繞審查和駭客入侵問題與中國官方發生高調對峙後，幾乎完全退出了中國搜索市場。

不過，觀察人士相信，北京方面幾乎沒有什麼處罰物件了。可能幫助谷歌增加流量的應用，如穀歌搜索引擎、谷歌地圖應用以及Gmail應用，在中國官方管道銷售的Android設備上都不見蹤影；這些設備都換裝了國內開發的同類應用。

記者一時聯繫不上穀歌請其置評。

譯者/何黎

中國工信部下屬的電信研究院發佈報告說﹐中國過於依賴谷歌的安卓平台﹐指責谷歌利用其領先地位歧視中國企業﹐這凸顯出谷歌和中國政府的關係仍然緊張。
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歐盟委員會：微軟要上繳數億歐元罰金

布魯塞爾

歐盟委員會做出對美國軟體巨頭微軟處以巨額罰款的決定，微軟須交納約5.6億歐元的罰金。在本週三，歐盟委員會在布魯塞爾公佈這項決定時表示，在2011 年5月到2012年7月之間，微軟公司違反了歐盟委員會的規定，未給用戶及時提供簡便的安裝其他公司流覽器的可能。歐盟委員會還表示，這是首家因為沒有履 行這樣的規定而受到歐盟處罰的公司。

數年前，歐盟委員會就向微軟提出指控，表示該公司將自己的"Internet Explorer"流覽器與“Windows”作業系統捆綁在一起，從而使消費者沒有其他網路流覽器的選項。

在2009年年末，微軟和有關當局達成協定，微軟將給Windows用戶連續5年提供一個流覽器選項螢幕，讓消費者可以更容易的使用其他流覽器。歐盟委員 會現在做出確認，從在2011年5月到2012年7月之間，微軟違反了這項規定，因為Windows 7的大約1500萬歐洲用戶除了微軟公司流覽器之外，並沒有其他選項。

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