与苹果逐鹿天下,三星苦于没有自研软件

Samsung Electronics Co. is stepping up its hunt for acquisitions and building out its presence in Silicon Valley to try and overcome its key weakness: software.

三星电子公司(Samsung Electronics Co.)正加快寻求收购机会，并采取措施扩大其在硅谷的影响力，以尝试克服其主要弱点：软件。

The South Korea-based company became the world's largest maker of smartphones by manufacturing attractive devices that hit the market quickly and cheaply.

这家韩国企业生产的电子产品上市速度快且价格低廉，对消费者极具吸引力，使其成为了世界最大的智能手机制造商。

But to thrive in a mobile-device market increasingly dominated by software specialists like Apple Inc., Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp., which acquired Nokia Corp.'s phone business last month, Samsung is aiming to become a software power in its own right.

但为了在日益被苹果(Apple Inc.)、谷歌(Google Inc.)和微软(Microsoft Corp.)等精通软件的厂商主导的移动设备市场取得蓬勃发展，三星打算凭己之力成为软件巨擘。微软在上个月刚刚收购了诺基亚(Nokia Corp.)的手机业务。

Earlier this year, Samsung was among the bidders for Israeli mobile-mapping service Waze Ltd., according to people familiar with the matter. Google eventually bought Waze for about $1.1 billion in July, a deal that is under review by the Federal Trade Commission. According to one person, Samsung had approached Waze in hopes of making a large investment and forming a partnership, before acquisition talks kicked off.

知情人士表示，今年早些时候，三星参与了以色列手机地图服务公司Waze Ltd.的收购竞价。7月份，谷歌最终以约110亿美元的价格收购Waze，目前该交易正在接受美国联邦贸易委员会(Federal Trade Commission)的审查。据一位知情人士称，在收购谈判开始前，三星曾与Waze有过接洽，希望进行大笔投资并建立合作关系。

Samsung has plenty of other Silicon Valley software startups in its sights, particularly in games, mobile Search, social media and mapping-related services, according to employees and an internal document reviewed by the Journal.

从三星员工提供的信息及《华尔街日报》审阅过的一份内部文件来看，三星已经准备在硅谷收购大量软件初创企业，尤其是游戏、手机搜索、社交媒体和地图相关服务方面的企业。

The document, a mergers and acquisitions presentation prepared in February by Samsung's Media Solution Center, the arm that works on software initiatives, lays out the company's rationale for bulking up in each category and lists potential acquisition and investment targets.

这份文件是三星公司负责软件方面行动的媒体解决方案中心(Media Solutions Center)今年2月准备的一份有关兼并收购的演示报告，其中阐述了公司在每个领域扩张的理由，并列出了潜在的收购和投资的目标。

According to the document, Samsung has evaluated startups such as Unity Technologies, a San Francisco-based developer of gaming platforms, and Green Throttle Games Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif.-based company that makes game controllers and software that connects mobile devices to televisions. It has also considered gaming pioneer Atari Inc., which Samsung could have used to offer classic games like Asteroids and Pong exclusively on its mobile phones. Atari auctioned off some of its properties this year as part of a bankruptcy filing after rejecting preliminary bids from several companies for its portfolio of games.

这份文件显示，三星对Unity Technologies和Green Throttle Games Inc.等初创企业进行了评估。前者是旧金山一家游戏平台开发商，后者是加州 克拉拉(Santa Clara)一家制造游戏手柄和移动设备与电视连接软件的公司。三星还考虑了游戏行业的先锋企业Atari Inc.，三星原本可以利用这家公司在手机上提供Asteroids和Pong等经典游戏。Atari今年拒绝了数家公司对其游戏组合产品的初步竞价要约，后来按照破产申请的要求将其部分资产进行了拍卖。

Samsung has also looked closely at Glympse, a Seattle-based company that allows users to share their location with their friends--a service that Samsung says could be integrated into their phones' native calendar and contacts functions, differentiating it from competitors.

三星还对西雅图的Glympse予以了密切关注。这是一家为用户提供地理位置分享服务的公司，三星表示这项服务可以与手机自带的日历和联系人功能进行整合，从而在竞争对手中脱颍而出。

Samsung first reached out to Glympse in early 2012, and has raised the prospect of an equity investment, though discussions remain ongoing, according to a person familiar with the matter. Last month, Glympse unveiled an app for Samsung's Galaxy Gear smartwatch.

据知情人士称，三星最早于2012年初与Glympse接洽，并提出了股权投资的设想，但商讨目前还在进行中。上个月，Glympse为三星Galaxy Gear智能手表推出了一款应用。

Elsewhere in the document, Samsung named Tel Aviv-based mobile search engine as a possible target. It has also looked at video-chat app Rounds, another Israeli startup, that would help Samsung compete with Apple's FaceTime and Google's Hangouts.

在这份文件中，三星还将以色列特拉维夫的手机搜索引擎作为潜在目标。此外还在考虑视频聊天应用Rounds，开发这一应用的Rounds公司也是一家以色列的初创企业，这一应用将可以帮助三星与苹果的FaceTime和谷歌的Hangouts竞争。

Samsung declined to comment on its acquisition plans--but it has made no secret of what it calls its 'embracing the culture of Silicon Valley.'

三星拒绝就其收购计划予以置评，但其所自称的“对硅谷文化的欢迎”已经不是秘密。

In recent months, the Suwon, South Korea-based company has broken ground on a major research facility near Apple's offices and launched a software startup accelerator with locations in Palo Alto, Calif., and Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. It will make early-stage investments in startups, especially developers of software for Samsung devices.

近几个月，总部位于韩国水原(Suwon)的三星公司开始在硅谷启动离苹果公司不远的一处大型研发中心的建设，并开设了一个覆盖加州帕洛阿尔托(Palo Alto)和曼哈顿切尔西(Chelsea)社区的软件创业公司加速器。加速器将为初创企业进行早期投资，特别是为三星产品开发软件的开发商。

Samsung, which has $1.1 billion set aside for early-stage startup and venture capital investments in the U.S., is also poaching software engineers from its U.S. rivals and, at a hotel in San Francisco later this month, will host its first ever developers' conference, an important step toward creating an 'ecosystem' of applications unique to its devices.

三星拨出了11亿美元用于在美国进行初创企业的早期投资及风险投资，同时也在挖美国竞争对手的软件工程师。本月晚些时候三星将在旧金山一家酒店举行有史以来的首次开发商大会，这是创建专为三星产品量身打造的应用程序“生态环境”的重要一步。

'The kind of things that happen in the Valley are really exciting to Samsung, ' said David Eun, the head of Samsung's Open Innovation Center, which operates the software-startup accelerator.

负责运作软件创业公司加速器的三星开放创新中心(Open Innovation Center)的负责人大卫·尤恩(David Eun)说：“正在硅谷发生的事情对三星来说非常激动人心。”

The aggressive move into its rivals' backyard is unusual for Samsung, a company that has historically kept its operations heavily centralized and shied away from outside deals. The emphasis on self-reliance runs so deep that Samsung manufactures some 90% of its products within its own factories.

积极闯入竞争对手后院的做法对三星来说是不同寻常的，因为这是一个历来高度集中管理且避开外部交易的公司。对自给自足的侧重根深蒂固，因此三星约90%的产品都是在自己的工厂中生产。

Privately, company executives portray the recent shift not as a repudiation of its long-term strategy, but rather as a complement to its own research and development efforts, which remain substantial.

私下里，三星公司高管并不认为最近的转变是对其长期战略的背离，而是与自身本已充实的研发努力相辅相成。

The company spent $10.8 billion on R&D last year, with 67, 000 employees devoted to helping Samsung maintain its edge in the global television, semiconductor and home-appliance markets.

三星去年的研发开支为108亿美元，6.7万名员工全力以赴助力三星保持在全球电视、半导体和家用电器市场的优势。

So far, though, its attempts at developing a proprietary-software hit for its mobile phones--which account for two-thirds of Samsung's operating profits--have fallen flat.

不过迄今为止，为三星手机开发热门自有软件的努力并未达到预期效果。手机业务占三星营业利润的三分之二。

Among Samsung's recent efforts are an abandoned mobile operating system, a mobile chat service that has struggled to gain traction and coolly received technologies that anticipate hand gestures and eye movements.

在三星最近的努力中，有一款废置的手机操作系统、一款难以获得关注的移动聊天服务软件，手势和眼球操纵技术的市场反应也比较冷淡。

In November 2009, Samsung launched Bada, an open-source mobile operating system that it hoped could challenge Google's Android platform. But Bada's unfriendly user interface and poor syncing with other devices proved unpopular with consumers.

2009年11月，三星推出了开源手机操作系统Bada，希望该系统可以与谷歌的安卓(Android)相较量。但由于用户界面不友好，与其他设备的同步也很差，Bada并未受到消费者的欢迎。

Earlier this year, Samsung pulled the plug on Bada, rolling those efforts into a new operating system known as Tizen. There too, Silicon Valley plays a key role: Samsung is codeveloping Tizen with Intel Corp. The company has yet to release a Tizen-powered smartphone.

今年早些时候，三星放弃了Bada，把精力投在了一款名叫Tizen的新型操作系统上。硅谷再次扮演了关键的角色：Tizen是三星与英特尔(Intel Corp.)合作开发的。三星目前尚未发布Tizen操作系统的智能手机。

If Samsung's new operating system catches on, it could relieve the company's reliance on Android, which powers the vast majority of Samsung's mobile devices, including its new smartwatch.

如果三星的新款操作系统受到欢迎，那么就可以缓解公司对安卓的依赖。三星绝大多数手机都采用安卓系统，包括其最新的智能手表。

Breaking through with a proprietary 'must-have' software application could also bolster Samsung's position at a time when the company is vulnerable to competition from Chinese hardware makers, including Lenovo Group Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. and Xiaomi Inc. In the most recent quarter, Samsung's mobile business saw its operating profit margin fall to 17.7%, from 19.8% in the previous quarter amid pricing pressure from rivals and increased spending on advertising.

面对包括联想集团(Lenovo Group Ltd.)、华为技术公司(Huawei Technologies Co.)和小米公司(Xiaomi Inc.)在内的中国硬件制造商的竞争，开创性地开发出一款自有的“必备”软件应用还可以提高三星的地位。三季度，由于竞争对手的价格压力以及广告费用的增加，三星手机业务的运营利润率从前一季度的19.8%下降到了17.7%。

Meanwhile, Google's tie-up with Motorola Mobility in 2011, and Microsoft's move to acquire Nokia's mobile-phone business last month, mean that Samsung will face heightened competition from companies that, like Apple, can compete in both hardware and software.

与此同时，谷歌2011年与摩托罗拉移动公司(Motorola Mobility)的联姻，以及上个月微软对诺基亚手机业务的收购，都意味着三星将面临来自苹果等在软硬件方面均有强大实力的公司的更大的竞争。

Samsung's software success is far from assured. Unlike Apple, Google and Microsoft, the Korean electronics giant doesn't have a history of software achievements. Instead, Samsung cut its teeth in the world of hardware, where efficiency, flexibility and supply-chain management are paramount.

三星在软件方面的成功谁也不能保证。与苹果、谷歌和微软不同，这家韩国电子巨头并没有在软件方面取得成就的历史。相反，三星在硬件领域可谓轻车熟路，在这个领域，效率、灵活性和供应链管理至关重要。

Acquiring its way to software dominance is no easier than building up its software capabilities organically. While Samsung has some nearly $50 billion in cash on hand, the company has struggled in the past with deal-making. Even today, some in Silicon Valley say, Samsung has developed a reputation for kicking the tires on a range of potential deals, only rarely pulling the trigger.

通过收购为进入软件领域开路并不比逐步打造其软件方面的能力容易。尽管手头有近500亿美元的现金，但三星过去曾经在收购交易上栽过跟头。硅谷有人说，就连现在，三星也都只是对一系列潜在交易进行了调查，但很少敲定成交。

One reason for such caution is Samsung's purchase of AST Research Inc. in the mid-1990s, an experience that still weighs heavily on company executives.

这种谨慎的原因之一是三星在上世纪90年代中期对AST Research Inc.的收购，这次收购经历对公司高管的影响依然很大。

The two-part, $840 million acquisition of Irvine, Calif.-based AST, once the world's fifth-largest computer maker, was conceived as an attempt to break into the U.S. personal-computer market.

总部位于加州尔湾(Irvine)的AST当时是世界第五大电脑制造商。三星以8.4亿美元的价格分两部分对其进行了收购，这一举动被认为是企图打入美国个人电脑市场。

Samsung sustained heavy losses in AST before ultimately giving up on the deal, which remains Samsung's largest overseas acquisition to date. Even now, the office of the chairman remains wary of big acquisitions, in large part because of AST, employees say.

由于遭受沉重损失，三星最终放弃了对AST的收购。迄今为止这依然是三星历史上规模最大的海外收购。三星员工表示，到现在董事长办公室对大型收购交易依然保持谨慎，很大程度上就是因为AST收购。

Samsung's recent acquisitions have been small, and focused on software developers that can help distinguish Samsung's phones from others built on the Android platform

三星近期的收购交易规模都较小，并且集中于能帮助三星手机有别于其他搭载安卓平台产品的软件开发商身上。

Last May, Samsung--seeking to create a credible rival to Apple's iTunes platform--snapped up mSpot Inc., a Palo Alto, Calif.-based mobile-software developer with hopes of creating a one-stop media platform that would allow users to stream and download music on their Samsung devices.

去年5月，为了对苹果iTunes平台构成实质性的威胁，三星收购了加州帕洛阿尔托手机软件开发商mSpot，希望创建一个一站式媒体平台，让用户可从三星手机上试听和下载音乐。

In the process, Samsung hoped to rival not only iTunes, but also online music-streaming services such as those offered by Sweden's Spotify AB and Oakland, Calif.-based Pandora Media Inc.

在这个过程中，三星希望不光能与iTunes抗衡，还希望能与其他在线音乐流媒体服务较量，比如瑞典的Spotify AB和加州奥克兰(Oakland)的Pandora Media Inc.。

Earlier this year, Samsung moved mSpot into a new office with plans to double its staff by the end of 2013. Since then, however, the company's attempts to develop the product, initially called Samsung Music Hub, have foundered.

今年早些时候，三星为mSpot安排了新办公室，计划在2013年底将其员工规模扩充一倍。不过此后三星开发起初名为Samsung Music Hub的相关产品的努力进展得并不顺利。