微軟和IBM從中國霧霾預報中發現商機?大綱

Two of the world's largest technology firms, IBM and Microsoft, are vying to tap the nascent, fast-growing market for forecasting air quality in China.

在中國的空氣質量預測市場方興未艾、高速發展之際，全球最大的兩家科技公司——IBM和微軟正在爭相開發這片市場。

Both Microsoft and IBM secured their first government clients last year after developing their respective pollution forecasting technologies.

在研發出各自的污染預測技術後，微軟和IBM去年雙雙迎來了來自首家政府客戶。

IBM's first client was the city of Beijing's environmental protection bureau, which bases its color-coded pollution alerts on the technology.

IBM的首家客戶是北京市環保局，合作項目基於其顏色分級預警技術。

For its part, Microsoft has signed up China's environment ministry, and the environmental protection bureaus in Fujian province and Chengdu city.

而微軟則與中國環保部、福建省環保廳、成都市環保局等簽署了合作協議。

The two tech rivals aren't just competing over government clients. Business clients - in particular renewable power generation companies - are another target, along with consumers.

作爲競爭對手，IBM和微軟的競爭對象不侷限於政府客戶，企業客戶(尤其是可再生髮電公司)、消費者也是它們的目標。

"If you can predict the weather, it only takes a few more variables to predict air quality," said Robert Rohde of Berkeley Earth, a U.S.-based non-profit that maps China's real-time air pollution. "Most of the time pollutant emissions don't vary very rapidly."

“如果能夠預測天氣的話，只需要多添加幾個變量就可以預測空氣質量。”追蹤中國實時空氣污染分佈的美國非盈利組織Berkeley Earth主管羅伯特·羅德表示，“大多數時候，污染物的排放不會在短時間內產生改變。”

But there are still kinks to work out. The latest version of Microsoft's iPhone app lacked the forecasting function advertised, which the company blamed on a bug, while during a recent "red alert," when the air was considered hazardous and schools were shut, the China Open IBM-based forecast recommended "light exercise".

但目前微軟和IBM的空氣質量預報應用仍存在一定缺陷。由於一處缺陷，微軟最新iOS版空氣質量檢測應用缺乏預測功能。在最近的霧霾“紅色預警”期間，北京的學校暫停教學，但中國網球公開賽和IBM共同推出的空氣質量預報大數據卻推薦民衆“輕度運動”。