谷歌（Google）在上周的I/O开发者大会上进行了诸多主题展示，第二天，分析人士一致认为，苹果（Apple）无需过度担心谷歌在周三（6月27日）发布的硬件设备。售价299美元的Nexus Q和苹果电视很像，但价格是后者的三倍。而售价199美元的Nexus 7平板电脑瞄准的是亚马逊Kindle而非iPad。至于售价1500美元的谷歌眼镜——一款增强现实型头戴式演示设备，或许会带来一场文化革命，以将该设备推向以时尚为导向的大众市场。

    不过，有一项声明应该引起了苹果密切关注：谷歌宣布将安卓市场（Android Marketplace）更名为谷歌play（Google play）。

    虽然安卓平台在智能手机销量上遥遥领先，但在与苹果iTunes的竞争中却一直处于下风，这是个不争的事实。尽管Android的应用程序数量已接近苹果（60万对65万），但在其它方面，前者几乎完败。iTunes用户聆听的音乐更多；购买的应用程序更多，同时保存的时间也更长；他们观看的广告更多，购买的商品也更多，所创造出来的收益也遥遥领先（2012年第二财季为19亿美元）。

    一些人指出，苹果两周前在其全球开发者大会上公布了一条极为重要的消息：该公司已拥有4亿信用卡账号，比去年增加了一倍，已超过任何一家在线零售商，即便是亚马逊也不得不甘拜下风。4亿账号；数十亿歌曲、电影、电视剧和书籍；方便快键的一键支付以及遍布全球的存储服务器，这一切造就了iTunes平台无以伦比的用户粘性。

    所以，苹果很可能注意到了，携新名称和新功能而来的谷歌play看起来和iTunes极为相似：就是一个提供休闲娱乐的一站式虚拟卖场。

    在谷歌发布会结束仅20分钟，一个“意外”出现了，彭博社（Bloomberg）发布了一条来自“熟知内情人士”的新闻，指出苹果正计划对iTunes进行全面升级。根据彭博社的说法，本次更新将是“这家全球最大的音乐商店自其 2003年首发以来的最大调整”。

    这基本可以看作苹果对谷歌发布会的官方反应。iTunes平台过于臃肿，需要进行全面调整，这是众所周知的，而苹果正在进行此方面工作也早已不是新闻。博客9to5Mac的马克•古尔曼早在四月就发布了此类文章（甚至还有截图）。

    不过，从这则新闻出现的时机可以看出，苹果对谷歌的反击现已正式开始。让新平台之战来得更猛烈些吧！

    译者：项航

    The consensus among analysts the day after Google's (GOOG) jam-packed I/O keynote is that Apple (AAPL) doesn't have much to fear from the hardware unveiled on Wednesday. The $299 Nexus Q mimics Apple TV but at three times the cost. The $199 Nexus 7 tablet is aimed at Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle, not the iPad. And it's going to take a cultural revolution to turn Google Glass -- the company's $1,500 augmented reality head mounted display -- into a mass market line of fashion eyeware.

    But there was one announcement that should give Apple pause: The rebranding of the Android Marketplace into Google play.

    It's no secret that the Android platform -- despite its dominance in terms of smartphones sold -- has been struggling to hold its own against Apple's iTunes. Although Android has nearly caught up to Apple in the sheer number of available apps (650,000 vs. 600,000), in almost every other respect it trails far behind. iTunes users listen to more music, buy more apps, keep them longer, look at more ads, purchase more products and generate far more revenue ($1.9 billion in fiscal Q2 alone).

    Some have argued that the most important announcement Apple made at its World Wide Developers Conference two weeks ago was that the company now has 400 million credit cards on file -- double last year's total and more than any other online retailer, including Amazon. Those 400 million accounts -- and the billions of songs, movies, TV shows and books purchased with a single click and stored on millions of hard drives around the world -- are the glue that makes the iTunes platform so sticky.

    So it probably didn't escape Cupertino's notice that with its new name and new features, Google play looks an awful lot like iTunes: A one-stop virtual shopping mall for entertainment.

    And it may not be an accident that 20 minutes after the end of Google's presentation,Bloomberg ran a piece -- sourced by "people with direct knowledge of the matter" -- saying that Apple was getting ready to release an overhaul of iTunes that would mark, according to the story, "one of the largest changes to the world's biggest music store since its 2003 debut."

    It was the closest thing we're likely to get to an official Apple response to Google's keynote. The fact that the famously bloated iTunes platform needed an overhaul and that Apple has been working on one is not news. 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman had the story (with screenshots) in April.

    But timing of the leak -- if that's what it was -- suggests that the game is now officially on. Let the next platform war begin.