Google reboots Android Market, launches Google Play - Polidicks

[release][img]http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/03/06/playtime_610x174.jpg[/img] Google is rebuilding Android Market. The Internet giant, looking to create a more comprehensive source for movies, apps, music, and e-books, is folding Google Music and Google eBookstore into one store, now renamed Google Play, according to Jamie Rosenberg, director of digital content for Google. The changes go into effect today. Google Play marks a radical departure from Android Market, which has been a fixture of the company's mobile platform since the debut of Android more than three years ago. The move is a tacit admission that offering apps, games, and e-books--the main features of Android Market--isn't enough to remain competitive even as rival app stores spring up. Google Play is designed to break down the walls separating the company's disparate offerings, Rosenberg said. "Google Play will become a single experience for users," Rosenberg said. "This creates a more powerful experience around Android and also increases opportunities for content partners" to interact with more of Google's offerings. Busta Rhymes, the rap artist, helped Google launch Google Music in Los Angeles in November. (Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET) It's a shocking branding shift, considering the resources and energy spent into building the Android name, which will live on as the brand for Google's mobile operating system. The move is likely to appease critics who have argued that Google's approach to digital content is fragmented. Services that should blend well together often seem out of sync. One example of this is Google Music and YouTube's music videos. When Google executives were pitching the idea of Google Music to the labels throughout much of 2010 and 2011, they spoke of closely integrating the service with YouTube's music videos, one of the bright spots in online music distribution. Yet the services never were combined. The formation of Google Play means that music will no longer remain a standalone service, Rosenberg said. While a phenomenally successful platform with broad adoption, Android Market has struggled to generate the kind of revenue Apple's App Store sees with its apps. Launched in October 2008, Android Market still lags far behind Apple in revenues, according to numerous studies. Last month, Distimo, a company that tracks data on app stores, reported that Apple's iOS App Store generated four times the total revenue of Android Market. As a result, developers have resorted to changing their business models, relying on mobile ads instead of up-front payments. Others have embraced the "freemium" model, which consists of giving away an app with the hope that the user pays a small fee down the line, either for additional services or extra levels or weapons in a game. Research In Motion, which has a much smaller BlackBerry App World storefront, boasts that its app store is more profitable for its developers than Android Market. Android's inability to generate significant revenue from content extended to Google Music, CNET reported two weeks ago. Music industry sources said Google Music had not met expectations on revenue or customer adoption. Following that report, others wrote that Google Music was actually losing customers. Rosenberg declined to discuss revenues but denied that the service is losing customers. Google Music is up to 4 million users, he said, and the company is "excited about Google Music's growth." The Google Play strategy has been in the works for some time, Rosenberg said, but did not specify how long. He stressed that the changes, which may take several days to roll out across the Android platform, won't alter libraries or playlists. All in all, while the shift to Google Play is the biggest acknowledgement yet that Android's content strategy was a bust, the company appears headed in the right direction. Bundling all the Android services into one area and under one brand will make it easier to market and hopefully help customers discover them as well. The strategy could make Google Play more competitive with Apple's iTunes. On the Mac, iTunes includes a comprehensive library of music, movies, shows, and apps for purchase. At the same time, Google's own vendor partners have struck deals with film, television, and music studios to sell their own media through custom app stores already loaded onto the mobile devices. Samsung Electronics, for instance, has its own media store with shows and movies, while HTC has dabbled with music content and has invested heavily in audio quality with the acquisition of a majority stake in Beats. Amazon, meanwhile, has attracted developers looking to build apps for its heavily customized version of Android, and it already offers streaming videos through its Amazon Prime service. [/release] Read more: [url]http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-57391350-261/google-reboots-android-market-launches-google-play/#ixzz1oMjfI5uL[/url]

Sounds good to me, I've been stuck on the really old version of android market for ages with my HTC Desire.

I used the Market with an American proxy once. Only then did I find out that the Market i'm used to is just an App Store, without the movies, music, books and all that. That was a disappointment, somewhat. Though I doubt this would change the situation, I hope it will.

[QUOTE=UberMunchkin;35023399]As long as the games/apps don't have those fucking ads that appear in your notifications...[/QUOTE] As far as I know, it's the devs' decision whether to put them in or not.

-wrong thread snip-

[QUOTE=Pandamobile;35023869][img]http://i.cubeupload.com/IZdtzI.png[/img][/QUOTE] Wrong thread? Anyway, I love the idea but how about they start rolling out music, movies and books outside of the US too?

[QUOTE=Egonny;35024179]Wrong thread? Anyway, I love the idea but how about they start rolling out music, movies and books outside of the US too?[/QUOTE] Oh dammit, I'm an idiot.

Not a single fuck was given by me, it's the same damn thing as always for me because of country restrictions.

It all sounds very good, just a shame only the app part has been released in Denmark so far. I'd love to see the music service, but hey, been waiting for that since for ever.

Everything in the world is US only

Looks like they fixed the Google Music app - now called Google Play Music. It's faster and snappier than previous versions.

[QUOTE=ChaosUnleash;35023234]Sounds good to me, I've been stuck on the really old version of android market for ages with my HTC Desire.[/QUOTE] You [I]should[/I] be able to update it manually. I can't remember how I did it but I now have the latest market on my Desire.

Please, make it open to the rest of the world ;___;

The Google music app's new icon is ugly and way worse than the previous one. And the Google app store really sucks. I mean damn, I know smartphone apps aren't all that great, but as an owner of hundreds of apps, both free ones and payed for ones (and lots of Amazon Appstore), there's no good apps other than the Google ones and crap. I only web browse on my smartphone :v: Google needs to get the iOS only apps on Android asap, there are some actual worthwhile game apps on there (gasp good smartphone games I know). The OS also needs to be smoother and more consistent like WP7 or iOS. It also needs to look better and be more universal like them (even the lowest end Windows Phones all run the OS well, get the latest updates, etc). Even the pure Google phones like the Nexus phones have update delays, bad battery life (Galaxy Nexus), etc. Basically Android is better than iOS, but it needs some major cleaning up. Something a billion dollar firm like Google should have fixed years ago.

[QUOTE=The Baconator;35036675] The OS also needs to be smoother and more consistent like WP7 or iOS. [/QUOTE] smoother?

[QUOTE=IceBlizzard;35036708]smoother?[/QUOTE] Why do people still not get this? [url]http://androidandme.com/2011/12/news/android-may-never-be-as-smooth-as-ios-says-ex-googler/[/url] The UI is not as intuitive, streamlined, and literally smooth. Use WP7 and iOS (on a 4 or 4S) and tell me that the UI isn't smooth as butter and a heavenly pleasure to use. This naturally appeals to use human beings, even if we try to disregard it as minor or shallow. Android has so much fucking potential, and Google just sits there and refuses to take the initiative. It's because of the bad management problems Google has been having in the past 2 years. Eric Schmidt even said half of them don't know what to focus on and where they are going.

Why Google Play? It's not just games that are in the store. Google Market would have been more appropriate.

a lot of apps on my ipod touch crash, got an S2 and never noticed any lag, maybe because apple brings out an iphone every year with the specs their OS needs? There are a lot of slow android phones out there

Only a couple of posts in and people are already starting a smartphone war... This thread is about Google Play, not about how smooth Android is.

[QUOTE=IceBlizzard;35036827]a lot of apps on my ipod touch crash, got an S2 and never noticed any lag, maybe because apple brings out an iphone every year with the specs their OS needs? There are a lot of slow android phones out there[/QUOTE] Yeah Apple dropped the ball on support for older phones. That's why I said 4 and 4S. I am just dissatisfied with Google's slow progress and how their priorities are so wrong. Again, this is more due to management issues and corporate restructuring and conflict of interest internally. Cause while Google deals with their internal issues, Microsoft has finally recovered from YEARS of severe management and consistency issues. This is due to their new creative manager and the president of the Windows, Windows LIVE, and Windows phone divisions being very good, and being the prime candidate for CEO when Ballmer steps down. Here's his pic btw, you might have seen him before: [IMG]http://www.taipeitimes.com/images/2012/02/29/thumbs/P11-120229-349.jpg[/IMG]

Still no tablet app filtering. Very disappointing.

[QUOTE=Within;35037099]Still no tablet app filtering. Very disappointing.[/QUOTE] Type Tablet in search for Tablet versions of Apps. Click on the Staff Picks for Tablets. Most apps work fine on tablets anyways.

Only difference for me is an uglier app icon in my appdrawer. Oh well.

And here I am still on the old version of the marketplace. [img]http://dl.dropbox.com/u/14575796/Cellular/snap20120307_135953.png[/img]