Google and Apple display the corporate equivalent of dark glasses and celebrity insouciance, gaining reams of free publicity with their every move. Yet while Apple need only step on stage with a product ready for sale, Google gets attention for merely mentioning its intentions. Dominance of search, piles of cash and an army of engineers do make it too powerful to be ignored. But there is no clear reason why Microsoft should quake over yesterday's announcement that Google intends to launch a free, fully fledged operating system by next year.
谷歌(Google)和苹果(Apple)就像戴着墨镜、逍遥自在的名人,一举一动都会获得大量的免费宣传。虽然苹果只需拿着准备销售的产品走上台去,但谷歌只要说说自己的打算就可获得关注。搜索领域的优势地位、堆积如山的现金和庞大的工程师队伍,确实使谷歌过于强大,不容忽视。但这并不一定意味着,谷歌昨日宣布的于明年推出一款完全成熟的免费操作系统的计划,就会让微软(Microsoft)吓到发抖。