谷歌为对抗苹果向安卓应用开发者示好

    谷歌并不认为在安卓上研发一款应用要比在iOS上研发相同应用更耗时。拉特里奇也表示，精通安卓系统的开发者如果转移到iOS平台上，他就会发现还是安卓平台编码更快。但现在应用开发界普遍朝苹果看齐，这些公司必须决定是否应该专门发展安卓产品。比如在Evernote就有好几支独立的开发团队专门针对iOS或安卓进行开发。该公司的产品总监菲尔•康斯坦蒂诺表示：“我们甚至希望两个版本之间形成竞争。”Yammer的工程师们则采取了另一条路子，公司向安卓和iOS平台投入了同等的资源，当其中一个平台需要某个独特的解决方案时，工程师们就会集中力量专攻这个项目。知名旅游网站TripAdvisor则有两支团队，不过他们分别负责维护它的两款主要应用，而不是专注于某一个系统平台。团队中的成员如果对一个平台更有经验的话，也可以为最终产品提供一些定制内容。

    TripAdvisor的产品总监亚当•麦卓斯解释道：“安卓用户不喜欢他们的应用看起来像iPhone应用。他们买安卓设备是有原因的。”

    安卓用户无需担心他们的应用全盘克隆iPhone应用。不过据拉特里奇介绍，在如何向开发者提供帮助的问题上，安卓将向苹果“取经”。尽管其他操作系统（包括苹果）都会向开发者提供基本的工具，比如一些现成的代码组，以帮助软件工程师节省时间和成本，但谷歌历来采取更加放任自流的态度。拉特里奇表示，这种情况即将发生改变。他的团队打算把诸如导航等常用功能的优秀代码公布于众，这样开发者可以直接拿来使用。这些开发工具可以减轻所有应用开发者的负担，但对于那些把主要资源集中在软件功能开发上的小公司来说帮助更大。

    “我们不想走到另一个极端上，让所有的应用看起来都一样，”拉特里奇说：“不过有些捷径可以帮助开发者把产品推向市场。”这番话听起来可能并不浪漫，但这就是谷歌这个科技巨头向开发者“求爱”的方式。

    译者：朴成奎

    Android disputes the notion that its development takes inherently longer than comparable projects over iOS, and Rutledge argues that Android-proficient developers can code faster than they would when switching to iOS. But with Apple as the standing benchmark, companies must decide whether to commit to such specialization. At Evernote, independent teams develop for each platform. "We almost like them to compete with each other," says, Phil Constantinou, the company's head of product. The engineers at Yammer try another tack: the company devotes equal resources to Android and iOS, and developers specialize more when a platform requires a unique solution. The popular travel website TripAdvisor has two teams, but split to cover each of its two major apps, not to focus on one system. Members of each team with more experience on a platform can then provide some customization to the final product.

    "Android users really dislike it when their app looks like an iPhone's," explains TripAdvisor product chief Adam Medros. "They bought an Android for a reason."

    Android users need not fret that they will soon have iPhone clones.. But according to Rutledge, Android's development offerings will be taking a baby step toward Apple's highly curated approach. While other mobile operating systems, including Apple's, offer developers basic tools, like blocks of code, that can save software engineers time and money, Google traditionally has taken a more laissez-faire approach. Rutledge says that is about to change. He says his team plans to share coding "best practices" that developers can copy for formulaic functions such as navigation. Such building tools would ease the developing burden for app makers of all sizes, but can especially help small companies focus resources on the functionality that might set their app apart in the marketplace.

    "We don't want to go to the far extreme of cookie cutters, where all apps look the same," Rutledge says. "But shortcuts can help developers get to market." It might not sound all that romantic, but that's how a tech giant woos.