今日科技速递：亚马逊与谷歌决战2013

分析：亚马逊与谷歌决战2013 路透社

    两家公司都正处于关键时刻。谷歌（Google）市值高达2,350亿美元，是亚马逊（Amazon）的两倍，很大程度上是源于其令人生畏的净利润。根据汤森路透（Thomson Reuters）I/B/E/S分析师的预测，谷歌今年净利润率为32%，净利润额高达132亿美元。相比之下，据说亚马逊今年或将略有亏损。

七问谷歌企业业务负责人  科技博客ALL THINGS D

    你们有何独特之处？

    我们曾经仅仅在成本上竞争。但现在这种情况已经改变。在云端，随着时间的推移，不应收取更高的费用来获得云服务。总的来说，成本应该降下来。我们应用的价格维持在50美元已有一段时间，同时我们的解决方案的深度和广度都在提升。另一方面，他们正通过提高收费赶走自己的客户。这是他们的战略，他们有权做自己想做的事。设备数量将激增，而网络服务的规模十分庞大。因此，问题在于你是想主攻台式机业务，还是网络服务以及联网设备。坦率地说，他们没有足够的公信力来提供规模化的网络服务。这不是他们做的事。或许他们随着时间的推移最终能够学会到底该怎么做。

电子书价格大战初露端倪 《纽约时报》

    这不是凭空猜测，一个重要的理由是，电子书在与实体书的大战中未能像预料的那样很快轻松致胜。

    Simba信息的分析师迈克尔·诺里斯称：“过去几年，电子书市场经历了高速增长，但如今已经开始显露疲态。即便是亚马逊这样的公司也迫切想知道，为了提高市场份额，究竟要把电子书的价格降到比竞争对手低多少——或者说是必须低多少？”

互联网网站看人下单 《华尔街日报》

    针对不同顾客提供不同价格，这种做法合理合法，只要不涉及到种族或其他敏感问题。一些公司指出，它们的在线服务将仿效这种现实世界里的定价策略。实体商店通常会根据当地需求、竞争及店铺位置等情况调整价格。如果同一家的公司的汽油在甲地的售价比乙地低，我相信没人会感到惊讶。

Analysis: Amazon, Google on collision course in 2013 [REUTERS]

    Both companies have a lot at stake. Google's market capitalization of $235 billion is about double Amazon's, largely because Google makes massive net earnings, expected by analysts to be $13.2 billion this year, based on a huge 32 percent net profit margin, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. By contrast, Amazon is seen reporting a small loss this year.

Seven question for Google enterprise chief Amit Singh [ALL THINGS D]

    What do you have that they don't?

    We used to compete on just cost. But that's changed. On the cloud, over time you shouldn't have to charge more money to get cloud services. Overall, your costs should go down. We've been at the $50 price point for apps for some time, while increasing the depth and breadth of our solution. On the other hand, the way they are incenting their customers to move is by charging them more. That is their strategy, and they are entitled to do what they want. Devices are going to proliferate, and Web services are now being delivered at scale. Then the question becomes whether you want to build around the desktop, or whether you want to build around Web services and devices being connected together. And, frankly, they don't have the credibility to deliver Web services at scale. That's just not what they do. They learn, hopefully, over time.

Little sign of a predicted e-book price war [THE NEW YORK TIMES]

    One big reason for the lack of fireworks is that the triumph of e-books over their physical brethren is not happening quite as fast as forecast.

    "The e-book market isn't growing at the caffeinated level it was," said Michael Norris, a Simba Information analyst who follows the publishing industry. "Even retailers like Amazon have to be wondering, how far can we go — or should we go — to make our prices lower than the other guys if it's not helping us with market share?"

Web sites vary prices, deals based on users' information [THE WALL STREET JOURNAL]

    Offering different prices to different people is legal, with a few exceptions for race-based discrimination and other sensitive situations. Several companies pointed out that their online price-tweaking simply mirrors the real world. Regular shops routinely adjust their prices to account for local demand, competition, store location and so on. Nobody is surprised if, say, a gallon of gas is cheaper at the same chain, one town over.