Hello Google Play, RIP Android Market
Today Google has rebranded its massive set of markets into one: Google Play, "Pure Entertainment, Anywhere You want it to be." This new market is taking the place of the Android Market, the Music store, Books, and Video stores as well. Google has taken this evolution of their market structure and put it at the forefront of not only their digital sales for each of these different medias, but for their cloud storage services as well. What you've got here is not just a store, but a place you can access your purchases at any time from whatever device you've got that can hook in.
We've got Google Play Books, Google Play Movies, Google Play Music, and more. This store is set to work on both the mobile platform and in-browser for all devices able to run a web browser. This new market will be sent out to Android devices running Android 2.2 FroYo over the next few days and will be replacing the Android Market name in the Google sandbar soon as well. The biggest difference for most people here seems to be the logo and the name, with the actual store and stores looking and feeling essentially the same.
You'll be syncing like a madman with your music, your videos, and books, your ability to stop working with one of these bits of media in one place and start again on a different device now yours to wield. Your Apps will of course work the same way they have before, with you able to purchase them online and sent them automatically to the devices of your choice.
With Google Play you can:
• Store up to 20,000 songs for free and buy millions of new tracks
• Download more than 450,000 Android apps and games
• Browse the world's largest selection of eBooks
• Rent thousands of your favorite movies, including new releases and HD titles
Beyond the cloud capabilities of this re-imagined portal then, The only thing that's really changed therefor, truly, is the branding scheme. The lovely new Google Play logo with the multicolored arrow akin to a Play symbol is up, the store is rolling out now, and Google is once again getting stronger with a simplification of terms. Tighten it up, Google!