Mountain View, California — Having just consolidated of its privacy policies, search engine behemoth Google on Tuesday opened a new virtual shop stocked with Android Apps, Google Music and the Google eBookstore under one product called Google Play, ramping up its challenge to rivals such as Apple’s iTunes store and Amazon.com.
Moving forward, over the next few days, the company in a blog post said that it will be upgrading the Android Market app to Google Play. Alternatively, Google’s music, books, and movie storefronts will now be dubbed as Google Play Music, Google Play Books, and Google Play Movies, the company said.
“Your videos, books and music apps all will be rebranded as Google Play Movies, Google Play Books and Google Play Music apps,” describes Google Director of Digital Content Jamie Rosenberg. The music, movies, books and apps you have acquired will continue to be available to you through Google Play–simply log in with your Google account like always, he added.
Say hello to Google Play. (Credit: Google)
Besides, Google Play stocks content on Google’s servers and makes that content available to users via Android phones, computers with Web browsers, and other mobile devices, like Apple’s iPhone, through a service-specific app or the device’s mobile browser.
“Google Play is entirely cloud-based so all your music, movies, books, and apps are stored online, always available to you, and you never have to worry about losing them or moving them again,” he said in a blog post. Adding, that the unified store is an effort to eliminate the hassle of moving files between computers and syncing devices.
On the other hand, “You can effortlessly find, enjoy and share your favorite music, movies, books and apps on the Web and on your Android phone or tablet,” Rosenberg said in a blog post.
In fact Al Hilwa, program director of applications software development at research firm IDC, mentions that Google is building out its Android content ecosystem to meet the challenge posed by Apple and its set of content services.
In addition, with Google Play, people can store as many as 20,000 of their own songs free of charge, where millions of tunes will be available for purchase, according to Rosenberg. Apple allows iCloud users to upload up to 25,000 songs but charges $25 annually if any of those songs were not purchased through iTunes.
Google Play will also stocks more than 450,000 downloadable mini-programs, or “apps,” for Android smartphones or tablets. It will also boast movie rentals and the world’s largest selection of electronic books. Besides, digital content made available at the online shop will vary depending on distribution rights worked out in various countries, according to Google, which will promote the transformed Android Market with discounts.
“Our long-term goal is to roll out as many different types of content as possible to people around the world, and we’ll keep adding new content,” Rosenberg said.
Moreover, the rebranding would not be steady on a worldwide basis. For instance, in Canada and the U.K., Google said it will offer movies, books and Android apps; in Australia, books and apps; and in Japan, movies and apps. Everywhere else, Google Play will be the new home for just Android apps, the company said.
As a special promotion, Google says that starting today, Tuesday, it will offer some top content at discount: In the U.S., today’s titles include the collection of top 40 hits Now That’s What I Call Music 41, the popular game Where’s My Water, the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and the movie Puncture for just 25 cents each. Google also said it would offer collections of hip-hop, rock, and country albums for $3.99 all week, detective novels from $2.99, some of its editorial team’s favorite movies from 99 cents, and its “favorite apps” from 49 cents.
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