高科技企业到底有哪些移动业务？

Be careful when some tech companies brag about their 'mobile' business.

当一些高科技公司吹嘘自己的“移动业务时，请小心。

Even as Facebook was struggling to make money on mobile, a challenge that its third-quarter results may help put to rest, there was never any doubt that the social network was among the mostly widely used applications on smartphones and tablets.

虽然Facebook也难以在移动业务上赚到钱──不过其三季度财报可能有助于它在移动业务上翻身，但在智能手机和平板电脑上，Facebook却是应用最为广泛的程序之一，这一点从来都毋庸置疑。

Compare that to the experience of tech giants such as eBay, Intel and Dell. Each suggests it has a mobile business, but it isn't so clear-cut. The rush to drape businesses in a 'mobile' cloak is reminiscent of the dot-com era when everyone seemed to be talking about their 'Internet' strategy.

将这种情形同eBay、英特尔(Intel)和戴尔(Dell)等高科技巨头的经历进行比较后会发现，尽管这些家企业都宣称自己拥有移动业务，不过这些移动业务看上去却显得不那么清晰。科技企业忙着给自己的业务披上一件“移动外衣让我们想起了互联网最热的时期，那时每家企业似乎都在谈论各自的“互联网战略。

Ebay, for example, expects its PayPal unit to do over $10 billion of 'mobile payment volume' this year. That excites many investors, who think it shows that PayPal can expand its business from online payments to the much larger market for in-store payments.

比如eBay预计贝宝(PayPal)业务今年的“移动支付额将超过100亿美元。这令很多投资者感到激动，他们认为这表明贝宝可以将其业务从在线支付扩展至市场大得多的“店内支付(in-store payment)业务。

But what eBay refers to as 'mobile payments' are mostly just standard e-commerce transactions happening on tablets or smartphones instead of on a desktop PC. It is hard to get excited about PayPal's traditional e-commerce business mostly following consumers' changing Web habits.

但eBay所称的“移动支付不过是指主要发生在平板电脑或智能手机而非台式电脑上的标准电子商务交易。贝宝这项主要根据消费者网络使用习惯变化而改变的传统电子商务业务是很难让人感到兴奋的。

Ebay is experimenting with products more closely aligned with what most think of as mobile payments. For instance, it is allowing small merchants to accept credit cards on smartphones and enabling consumers to pay without physically swiping a credit card.

eBay正在尝试那些同大多数人所认为的“移动支付更相符的产品。比如，它允许小商户接受基于智能手机的信用卡，这样消费者不必实际刷卡就可以进行支付。

But Square is ahead of PayPal in working with small merchants to process cards. And while more retailers now accept PayPal, consumers need to enter a phone number and PIN, more cumbersome than simply swiping a card. So the impact of these initiatives is likely limited so far.

在同小商户合作处理信用卡支付一事上，电子钱包开发商Square走在了贝宝的前面。虽然现在有更多的商户接受贝宝，但消费者在使用时必须输入一个电话号码和个人识别码(PIN)，比直接刷卡更麻烦。所以这些新业务所带来的影响到目前为止可能有限。

Dell splits its computer business into 'Desktop PCs' and 'Mobility.' But it doesn't sell smartphones and its tablets have failed to capture meaningful market share. So what is in the 'mobility' bucket? Mostly laptops, which buyers are increasingly shunning in favor of Apple's iPad.

戴尔则将其电脑业务拆分为“台式电脑和“移动设备两大块。不过戴尔并不出售智能手机，其平板电脑业务未能占据值得一提的市场份额。那么到底什么是戴尔的“移动设备呢？主要还是笔记本电脑。而消费者对笔记本电脑的兴趣日渐降低，对苹果(Apple)iPad的偏好则日渐增加。

Dell hopes to grab tablet share with devices running Microsoft's new operating system that works with touch-screens. But its new tablets will go against similar ones from, among others, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo and even Microsoft, which is releasing its Surface tablet this week.

戴尔希望通过推出搭载微软全新操作系统的设备来抢占平板电脑市场份额。微软新系统能够兼容触屏电脑。但戴尔推出的新平板电脑将和惠普(Hewlett-Packard)、联想(Lenovo)甚至是微软等厂商推出的类似产品直接竞争。微软本周将推出平板电脑Surface。

Then there is Intel, which in 2011 began describing its business selling servers with a new adjective: 'mobile.' The justification is that as mobile devices multiply, data centers need to be outfitted with more servers to handle increased Internet traffic.

还有英特尔。从2011年开始英特尔在描述其服务器销售业务时用了一个新词：移动。英特尔这么做的理由是，随着移动设备成倍增加，数据中心需要配备更多的服务器来处理不断增加的网络流量。

That trend has helped Intel boost its data-center segment faster than its PC segment. Yet that is little consolation for investors, considering that nearly two-thirds of Intel sales still come from PC chips. Demand for these is sagging as market share goes to tablets and even smartphones. Intel may dominate in PC chips, but when it comes to mobile circuitry, its share is negligible.

这种趋势已经令英特尔数据中心业务的增长速度快于个人电脑业务。但这并不能给投资者带来些许安慰，因为英特尔的销售收入中近三分之二仍然来自个人电脑芯片业务。随着市场份额逐渐为平板电脑甚至是智能手机所占据，市场对个人电脑芯片的需求正在下降。英特尔在个人电脑芯片市场可能占据领导地位，但是到了移动设备市场，其份额就微不足道了。

Mobile is today's digital tsunami. Some companies are ready to ride the waves, others may see parts of their business washed away.

移动业务就像当下席卷而来的数码海啸，有些公司已经准备好乘风破浪，有些公司可能会发现部分业务被海啸卷走。