Google, who has long since been getting criticism for having its digital media services splintered, announced today the launch of Google Play. Google Play is cloud-based and consists of Android Market, Google Music, Google Movies, and the Google eBookstore. They will all merge together as a unified media service. Over the next few days users will see changes in the names as app updates will appear on their Android device: The Android Market will become "Play Store", Google Movies will be "Play Movies", Google Music will be "Play Music", and the Google eBookstore will become "Play Books". Google's motivation behind merging its content is to put itself "out there" on the market in order to compete with iTunes and Amazon and ensure the Android Market doesn't get bigger than Google itself. It's a long time coming, but now users will have more choices and iTunes gets another competitor worth mentioning for sure.
Google's Director of Digital Content, Jamie Rosenberg, stated on Google's Official Blog 3/06/12, "Entertainment is supposed to be fun. But the reality of it is; getting everything to work can be the exact opposite--moving files between your computers, endless syncing across your devices, and wires--lots of wires. Today we're eliminating all that hassle."
Google Play boasts 450,000 Android apps and games for download along with as many as 20,000 songs. The cloud based storage creates an Android cloud storage system capable of the same functionality as iTunes and opens up a whole new media system for Android users. Apple's App Store has more than 550,000 downloadable apps putting Google Play right behind the mobile app giant. Google and Apple will definitely be competing for the mobile-device market share since this transformation has been completed; making Google a force to be reckoned with.
Although Google Play will be marketed towards Android users, any Google user can get the benefits of the cloud-based storage. Google Music has the capability of storing 20,000 songs per user. Any previous songs you had already purchased or uploaded will not be affected by the change. As far as movies go, with Google Movies you are currently not allowed to upload personal movies to the cloud. The movie app is simple rentals only. Another thing to keep in mind with Google Play is that Google loves integration. Expect Google+ to appear prominently throughout Google Play and its apps to "connect users."
Considering the Apple App Store has had over 25 billion downloads and is rapidly increasing to an estimated rate of 15 billion app downloads per year, Google Play has its work cut out indeed! Google's move closes a "niche" that needed filling and by all accounts will give iTunes some clear competition. It's all about having everything in one convenient location and Google finally took the plunge and stepped into the big leagues. As noted previously in the Jamie Rosenberg statement, "Entertainment is supposed to be fun..." Google Play has listened to their users and resolved their problems with a simple, yet huge change and I believe it will take off in a big way. Google Play has the potential to become a name everyone uses like iTunes. They have placed themselves with precision in the Android Market so the rewards will be huge. Google has always been good at finding "niches" like ranking in search engines and little things like that. They have done it again with Google Play, so I say, "Watch out iTunes, you finally have legitimate competition in the mobile-app world!"
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