微軟和Barnes & Noble的愛情故事

Microsoft and Barnes & Noble write their own love story.

微軟和Barnes & Noble共寫愛情故事。

LAST July Barnes & Noble gave a presentation to the antitrust division of America's Department of Justice.

去年七月Barnes & Noble向美國司法部反托拉斯部門做了一個演示。

In slide after slide, the bookseller laid into Microsoft.

Barnes & Noble的每張幻燈片都在攻擊微軟。

The software giant, it thundered, was guilty of "anti-competitive behaviour" in demanding royalties from makers of mobile devices (such as the Nook, Barnes & Noble's e-reader) that used Android, Google's open-source mobile operating system.

它怒斥微軟這家軟件巨頭違法，因爲微軟向生產使用安卓(谷歌的手機開源操作系統)移動設備的廠商收取專利使用費是"反競爭行爲"（例如Barnes & Noble的電子書閱讀器Nook）。

The bookseller sniffed that Microsoft owned only "trivial" patents and reminded the department of the software company's past trespasses against competition.

Barnes & Noble譏諷微軟只擁有一些不重要的專利並向提醒司法部微軟以往的反競爭行爲。

Nine months later, the bookworms and the geeks are the best of friends.

九個月後，書蟲和極客成爲了最好的朋友。

On April 30th Barnes & Noble said it was creating a subsidiary, called NewCo for now, into which it would put Nook and its "college" business, which has 641 bookshops on American campuses.

4月30日，Barnes & Noble宣佈成立名爲NewCo的分支公司，該公司主營Nook和在美國校園擁有641家書店的"高校"業務部。

Microsoft is putting up $300m for 17.6% of NewCo.

微軟注資3億美元，擁有17.6的股份。

People will be able to buy and read e-books through a Nook application for Windows 8, a new incarnation of Microsoft's operating system that is due to appear in a few months.

人們將能通過WIN8版Nook應用購買和閱讀電子書，WIN8是微軟的新版操作系統，將在數月後問世。

Microsoft will pay NewCo an advance of $180m over three years for such purchases, plus $125m over five years to buy content and develop technology.

微軟將會提前支付1.8億美元的三年使用費，並支付額外的1.25億美元用於之後五年的內容購買和技術開發。

The squabbles over patents have been settled: Microsoft is giving Barnes & Noble a licence for the Nook and will get royalties in return.

專利之爭已經平息：微軟給予Barnes & Noble的Nook許可證並獲得專利使用費。

For now at least, the Nook will remain an Android, not Windows, device.

最起碼就目前而言，Nook將仍然是安卓陣營成員而非windows成員。

The agreement values NewCo at $1.7 billion, more than twice Barnes & Noble's market capitalisation before it was announced.

協議中將NewCo估價爲17億美元，超過協議公佈前Barnes & Noble市值的兩倍。

The bookseller's share price rose by 50% on the day of the deal—which tells you what investors think of the dead-tree end of the trade.

協議達成當天Barnes & Noble股價上漲50%，這表明投資者對這個實體書過時行業的看法。

The alliance should bring Barnes & Noble not only cash but also new readers of digital books and magazines, especially outside the United States.

兩公司聯合不僅僅給Barnes & Noble帶來資金還要帶來新的電子書刊讀者，尤其是美國外的讀者。

In the fourth quarter of 2011, according to Tom Mainelli of IDC, a research firm, Barnes & Noble accounted for one-fifth of the 7m e-readers shipped in America—against a mighty three-quarters for Amazon, maker of the Kindle (see chart).

調查機構IDC的Tom Mainelli表示，2011年第四季度美國市場新推出的七百萬的電子書閱讀器中，Barnes & Noble佔有五分之一，而Kindle的生產商亞馬遜囊括了四分之三。

But Barnes & Noble shipped no Nooks elsewhere, which helps explain why it had only 14% of the global market.

但是Barnes & Noble只在美國銷售Nook，這也解釋了爲什麼它只擁有14%全球市場。

Via the Nook app, non-Americans will also be able to leaf through Barnes & Noble's digital catalogue.

通過Nook應用，其他國家的居民也可以瀏覽Barnes & Noble的電子產品目錄。

Microsoft is in effect buying a second bash at a market where it made an early but unsuccessful start.

實際上這是微軟在早期打入電紙書市場失敗後的第二次嘗試。

It launched its own e-reader software all of 12 years ago.

12年前，微軟就曾發佈過自己的電紙書軟件。

The deal with Barnes & Noble, bringing lots of content with it, may give people an extra reason to buy Windows 8 tablets (a likelier choice for e-reading than smartphones, laptops or desktops) when they appear.

這次與 Barnes & Noble的協議又加入了諸多內容，這使得上市後購買WIN 8平板電腦的人們多了一個理由（就電子閱讀來說平板電腦是比智能手機，筆記本或臺式機更好的選擇）。

The bundling of Barnes & Noble's college business into NewCo indicates hope that a fair few of these customers will be students.

Barnes & Noble的大量高校業務融入NewCo，這意味着多數客戶有望是學生。

Allen Weiner of Gartner , another research firm, suggests that through campus bookshops Barnes & Noble could sell Windows devices pre-loaded with course material.

調查機構高德納公司的Allen Weiner暗示通過校園書店，Barnes & Noble可以銷售預先裝有課程材料的Windous設備。

Of course, others are after students' dollars too. Apple recently started selling interactive digital textbooks for the iPad, far and away the biggest-selling tablet (among its publishing partners is Pearson, part-owner of The Economist).

當然其他公司也對大學生市場虎視眈眈。 蘋果公司最近開始爲其賣得最好的平板電腦ipad銷售互動電子書（合作出版社之一是Pearson，也是經濟學人的股東之一）。

But Mr Weiner points out that Microsoft and Barnes & Noble have some advantages. Lots of students write notes and essays with Microsoft's Office software, which is not available on the iPad.

但是Weiner指出微軟和Barnes & Noble有優勢， 許多學生使用微軟的office軟件做筆記，寫文章，而ipad上卻沒有這一軟件。

And although Amazon sells and rents a lot of paper textbooks, it has not done much with digital ones.

而且儘管亞馬遜銷售出租大量紙質教材，卻並沒有過多涉及電子版教材。

The tie-up with Barnes & Noble makes three of a kind for Microsoft: cheap deals with struggling but established partners in markets where it is weak and sees a chance to do much better.

與Barnes & Noble公司的合作關係是微軟完成了第三項同類合作： 在表現不佳有大量上升空間市場裏以廉價的合同和經營不佳但在業內已樹起口碑的公司簽約合作。

In 2009 it struck an agreement with Yahoo! in online search.

2009年，微軟與雅虎就網上搜索達成協議。

Last year Nokia became the prime conduit for Windows in smartphones.

去年，諾基亞成爲windows智能手機的最佳渠道。

With Barnes & Noble it is having another stab at e-reading. Unlike the books on the Nook, this tale is still being written.

而與Barnes & Noble合作，則可以打入電子閱讀市場。 不像Nook上的電子書那樣，這個故事依舊在繼續。