New 'Google Play' Puts Music, Movies

In a move that’s sure to put both Apple and Amazon on notice, Google has announced that it’s replacing the Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore with one service called Google Play.

The world of hardware - Google TV

When you consider Google’s recent forays into the world of hardware - Google TV, Chromebooks, the growing market share of Android smartphones - it makes sense that the company would as well want a way to distribute content across all of those platforms. All Google is missing is a serious competitor to the iPad - something a rumored $200 Nexus-branded tablet might fix.

Not to mention that iTunes already has a huge head start in the online movie rental space and that Amazon’s Kindle Store is all in all the most popular place to buy e-books online. In spite of everything, if anyone is positioned to gain ground on Amazon and Apple, it’s Google.

Google’s Android Market was already robust, boasting more than 450,000 different apps. The ability to buy them from your computer and at that time instantly have them sent to your phone and tablet is pretty appealing.

Plus, Google has a flexibility that Apple and Amazon don’t. Apple is locked into its own devices; Amazon has plenty of content, however doesn’t have the reach of Google when it comes to the ubiquity of Android, not to mention its storefronts aren’t as neatly synchronized.

Apple has won a key victory in a closely-watched intellectual property case afterwards a federal judge ruled that Google must turn over information related to its Android mobile operating system and its $12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola Mobility.