《迷雾重重》——乔布斯与谷歌的故事

    日前，关于谷歌（Google）的新书《迷雾重重》（In the Plex）上架。在这本引人入胜的书中，批露了谷歌众多内幕隐情，其中一则内幕消息就是，当谷歌创始人拉里•佩奇和谢尔盖•布林被迫聘用首席执行官时，史蒂夫•乔布斯曾是他们的首选。

    作者史蒂芬•列维此前还撰写了《疯狂地卓越》（Insanely Great）和《完美之物》（The Perfect Thing）两部作品，分别记录了Mac电脑和iPod问世的点点滴滴。然而，关于苹果（Apple）和谷歌之间的关系，史蒂芬•列维在其新书中做了非常深入详实的描述，这里介绍几处精彩篇章：

    • 初期：“两家公司开始了可能产生辉煌业绩，甚至带来整个行业变革的合作。当时，经验丰富的乔布斯向两位“聪明”的互联网新秀贡献了其专业知识和智慧，而两家公司将联手把微软（Microsoft）拉下马。”

    • 埃里克•施密特加入苹果董事会：“苹果和谷歌有太多交集，俨然就像一家公司。施密特戏称：‘如果两家公司合并，我们就取名苹谷（AppleGoo），但我们不用正式合并，就胜似合并’。”

    • Android的操作系统越来越像iPhone：“一段时间之后，乔布斯开始意识到，谷歌正逐渐成为一个竞争对手……到2008年，两家公司的发展轨迹，至少在手机业务领域，更多的是无可避免的碰撞与冲突，而非合并。”

    • 谷歌浏览器Chrome：“据内部人士透露，数月间，乔布斯就断定自己是谎言的受害者。谷歌不顾对苹果的影响，为实现自身愿景，毅然推出谷歌浏览器，由此拉响了第一声警报。”

    • Android：“更为糟糕的是，Android操作系统开始向市场渗透。随着乔布斯逐渐察觉到曾被自己视为良性竞争对手的，实际上恰恰是iPhone的成熟替代品，乔布斯越发感到难过……在大家眼里，乔布斯为自己从商及看人的敏锐眼光感到自豪，因此他不愿意承认，特别是打心眼里不愿相信，他曾经一直试图指导的那两个年轻人最后背叛了自己。”

    • 乔布斯访问谷歌总部Googleplex：“2008年夏天，乔布斯亲赴山景城，评判谷歌欺骗行为对其业务的危害程度。据报道称，当时他非常恼怒。他觉得谷歌不仅耍了他，还因此窃取了苹果的知识产权。”

    欲知更多惊人内幕，全书内容为你详细披露。印刷精装本由西蒙与舒斯特公司（Simon & Schuster）出版，每本售价26美元；另外，亚马逊（Amazon）Kindle和苹果iBookstore提供新书电子版，每本售价12.99美元。

    翻译：J.Y

    校对：L.L

    One of the first details to leak out of In the Plex -- the new page-turner about Google released Tuesday -- was that when Larry Page and Sergey Brin were pressed to hire a CEO, Steve Jobs was their first choice.

    But Steven Levy -- who had previously chronicled the creation of the Mac (Insanely Great) and the iPod (The Perfect Thing) -- has lots more to say about the relationship of Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) in his latest book. Among the highlights:

    • Early days: "The two firms embarked on a potentially glorious, industry-changing alliance in which the veteran Jobs would lend expertise and wisdom to the smarty-pants Internet kids and the two firms together would take down Microsoft."

    • Eric Schmidt joins Apple's board: "There was so much overlap that it was almost as if Apple and Google were a single company. .. 'If we merge the companies we can call it AppleGoo," Schmidt joked. 'But we can merge without merging.'"

    • Android's OS becomes more iPhone like: "It took a while for Jobs to understand that Google was becoming a competitor... By 2008, however, the trajectories of the two companies, at least with respect to phones, was less a merger than an impending collision."

    • Chrome: "Insiders say that over a period of months, Jobs concluded that he was the victim of deceit. The first alarming sign of Google pursuing its vision regardless of its effect on Apple was the Chrome browser."

    • Android: "Android, though, was much worse. As he learned more about how the benign competitor he had envisioned was actually a full-blown alternative to the iPhone, Jobs became increasingly upset. ... From all accounts, Jobs prided himself as a canny observer, not only of business but also of human character, and he did not want to admit -- especially to himself -- that he had been betrayed by the two young men he had been attempting to mentor."

    • Jobs visits the Googleplex: "In the summer of 2008, Jobs ventured to Mountain View to personally judge the extent of the violation. He was reportedly furious. Not only did he believe that Google had performed a bait and switch on him... but he also felt Google had stolen Apple's intellectual property to do so."

    There's more where that came from. The book is available in hardback from Simon & Schuster ($26) and in a digital version on Amazon's (AMZN) Kindle and Apple's iBookstore ($12.99).