Android Market, Books, Music rebranded "Google Play" to compete with Apple's iTunes
Google has rebranded its Android Market mobile software store as Google Play, folding in Google Music and the company's eBookstore to create a single brand for all of its digital and cloud based content services, similar to Apple's iTunes.
The new Google Play umbrella branding deemphasizes Android, highlighting instead Google's own corporate brand as being a source for content that is playable not just on devices incorporating Android software, but from any web-enabled device.
Google Play categorizes its content under Movies, Music, Books and Apps and Games, only the later of which requires an Android device.
"Google Play is available on any computer with a modern browser at play.google.com," the company states on its . "On the web, you can browse and buy books, movies and music. You can read books on the Google Play web reader, listen to music on your computer or watch movies online. Your digital content is all stored in the cloud, so you can access from anywhere using your Google Account.
"We’ve also created ways to experience your music and books on other platforms such as the Google Books iOS app."
Google's web-centric iTunes
The company describes the new Google Play as its "digital entertainment destination where you can find, enjoy and share your favorite music, movies, books and apps on the web and on your Android phone or tablet."
The new branding is currently US-centric, as Google Play doesn't yet support music in the Canada or the UK, doesn't yet support movies or music in Australia, doesn't yet support music or books in Japan, and doesn't currently support anything apart from Android apps in any other country.
While not as widely available as iTunes, Google Play matches Apple's cloud focus (even borrowing the company's iCloud logo on its official Google Play website), and integrates Google+ similar to Apple's iTunes Ping social network, although Google adds a feature to allow users to share a free listen to the songs they share.
Google also highlights its own version of iTunes Genius features including store recommendations and "Instant Mix" playlists. Google Play also offers streaming features similar to iTunes Match, although rather than matching your music library, it requires you to upload all your songs manually to the cloud.
Google's troubled Android Market
Despite Android being widely used by smartphone makers, Google has struggled to gain traction for app sales in Android Market. Apple's iOS platform continues to eat up around 90 percent of mobile software revenues.
At the end of 2010, Google refreshed its Android Market design, but early last year the company's Android platform manager Eric Chu told developers that Google is "not happy" about the limited number of apps actually being purchased.
Chu indicated that Google planned to turn Android users' Address Books into a "social graph" that third party apps could tap into, and said that Google was "betting on" HTML5 as a way to create apps, a continuation of Google's strategy to use Android as a stepping stone to eventually deliver mobile software via cross platform web standards.
Users, however, have not been quick to embrace web apps with the same degree of enthusiasm as native apps for iOS. Apple initially offered a web apps API for iPhone developers, but quickly moved to support native apps. Native iPad apps have also served as a major attraction to Apple's new tablet, which will see its third generation released tomorrow.
[ View article on AppleInsider ]
Comments
2) This article doesn't mention the other change for Android Market of allowing the max app size to increase from 50MB to 4GB. Nice jump.
3) There payouts are weak. Even Facebook paid $700 million out to developers in 2011 alone.
It sounds like something only a 2-year old would be interested in.
1) What a dumb name. Makes it sound like it'll be focused on games. But more importantly you don't change primary aspects of your name unless the branding has been tainted... which I don't think it has.
Google play ( lower case 'p') as in downplay
And logo... the use of the triangle makes it immediately clear that "play" refers to play music, play video etc.
I've thought for a while that "iTunes" is becoming a bit anachronistic as a name, given that it now acts as a portal for movies, tv, podcasts, games etc.
Always good to see healthy competition!
Isn't it?
Google play ( lower case 'p') as in downplay
As in foreplay without sex(paying the devs...)
Cool name.
And logo... the use of the triangle makes it immediately clear that "play" refers to play music, play video etc.
Play books?
I've thought for a while that "iTunes" is becoming a bit anachronistic as a name, given that it now acts as a portal for movies, tv, podcasts, games etc.
Always good to see healthy competition!
Isn't it?
Yes, and yes, iTunes is bloatware and the interface and sync has become a bloated convoluted piece of crap, having said that it's still the best paradigm and service available at the moment although in dire need of redesign.
And logo... the use of the triangle makes it immediately clear that "play" refers to play music, play video etc.
I do like the logo better than the old one. Nice pick up on that it's reminiscent of the the play button arrow. You might be right that this will be a focus on all types of media and expanding outside of Android, but I still think Market was better.
I've thought for a while that "iTunes" is becoming a bit anachronistic as a name, given that it now acts as a portal for movies, tv, podcasts, games etc.
That's not how brand names work. People don't say that sugar-free/caffiene-fee Pepsi is wrong because there is nothing in it to give you pep, or that Coke is wrong because there is no longer and cocaine, or that you can't call it a podcast if they are mostly used on non-iPods like the iPhone, iPad and in iTunes. They dropped Music from the name but that was the unimportant bit, not to mention iTunes is a made up word that never existed prior to app's existence.
I do wonder, to some extent, what they're up to, though. They're basically trying to cover nearly every avenue of where Apple has been but not generating a particularly large amount of revenue from the endeavor. My thought is that this is all Google's way of keeping its finders in user data and advertising going forward, in addition to preserving its relevance. Especially on the mobile platform.
Amazon was just about to eat Google's lunch, now Amazon needs to re-organize their smartphone strategy and really distinguish themselves from the run-of-the-mill Android handsets.
Sony needs to get on the same boat and really push their own ecosystem (even if it is an android ecosystem.)
Other than that, still a fan of the Apple ecosystem. Just happy to see that others are figuring out how to compete (even if it's by copy and paste....)
Despite Android being widely used by smartphone makers, Google has struggled to gain traction for app sales in Android Market. Apple's iOS platform continues to eat up around 90 percent of mobile software revenues.
Very nice. Give Google an extra month and a half to make the difference look smaller than it is.
Google brand? You mean the one that is gaining a reputation for dishonesty, intellectual property theft, and prying into our personal lives? Good luck with that!
Not to mention fragmentation, apps that don't run, security holes, and so on.
Play books?
Yes, and yes, iTunes is bloatware and the interface and sync has become a bloated convoluted piece of crap, having said that it's still the best paradigm and service available at the moment although in dire need of redesign.
I do agree that itunes is a headache I remember buying my first ipod and it was mess and still till this day I come across things I can't figure out (album art covers was a headache too) it does need a redesign..
Cool name.
And logo... the use of the triangle makes it immediately clear that "play" refers to play music, play video etc.
I've thought for a while that "iTunes" is becoming a bit anachronistic as a name, given that it now acts as a portal for movies, tv, podcasts, games etc.
Always good to see healthy competition!
Isn't it?
Yes indeed
Play books?
Yes, and yes, iTunes is bloatware and the interface and sync has become a bloated convoluted piece of crap, having said that it's still the best paradigm and service available at the moment although in dire need of redesign.
I really like that Google is moving towards a Windows Metro look. Very clean.
I just visited play.google.com from chrome on a Windows machine. The landing page is nice. However, as soon as I go to My Music? No way (that I can see) to return to the home landing page. I clicked on the Google play logo and it goes no where. My Books, My Movies, and My Android Apps all seem to return to the main landing page (store).
Other than that, looks good. Still won't be my go to destination, but only because iPhone/iPad/iMac and the iTunes/iCloud/iTunes Match work better for me.
iTunes has become a name that doesn't really encompass all that it offers. But that was a gradual occurrence. I wonder if they will change it at some point.
I've thought for a while that "iTunes" is becoming a bit anachronistic as a name, given that it now acts as a portal for movies, tv, podcasts, games etc.
Like everybody else. iTunes has its name for historical reasons and is a strong trade name that shouldn't be dumped on a whim. You can bet Apple has been working on a suitable replacement for years. What's Google's excuse?
Always good to see healthy competition!
Isn't it?
Absolutely. Where is it? Oh, you mean Android? What's healthy about it?
Why would anybody want to buy something from Google?
There are lots of reason. For starters they sell a lot of juicy analysts on us, their product.