I get the idea. Android Market is essentially Google's iTunes now, and they want to push the music/movies aspect. Google Play makes more sense than iTunes branding does (tunes are about 1/8 of what it does these days), but there is some weirdness. Play works well for music/movies/games, but not really for apps/books. I was introduced to the brand with an update to Google Books app saying it was now Google Play Books, which made me think Google was expanding into sports team management or something.
The rebranding occurred when Google changed it from an Android app store into a one-stop-shop for apps but also books, movies, and other downloadable media.
This trend is also mirrored in the "Google Play" branding. The Google app and data syncing should be a huge selling point for the ecosystem in general.
ugh, I hope they stick with an overloaded "Google Play" (like the overloaded "iTunes") rather than specifying "google play books".
First, because everyone will be fine with that in a month and know that multiple types of media are in there and second, because it's only a short hop from there to "Windows Live Home Mobile Live" or "Samsung Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch"
What's really annoying is when the Google apps start becoming worse to make Google more money. I never open the app store without wanting an app, but it constantly tries to sell me books and movies and stuff like that. They even have separate Google apps for reading and movies, so shoving it in the app store is just a money grab making my usage more difficult to shove some ads in my face. Were these apps open source people could just fork, but we're stuck going along with Google until they mess up so bad it makes sense to switch over entirely to Amazon App store, Samsung Apps Seller, etc. and the equivalent for everything else.
From a branding perspective, that would be terrible. They've already invested a bunch in Google Play brand that isn't Android Apps (Play Music, Play Books, etc).
Seems more likely they'll allow HTML apps into the Play Store, eventually getting rid of the Web Store entirely. They've already done the WebAPK stuff to glue HTML apps into Android.
I was surprised at first, but as I thought about it more, it makes sense. Google wants to have you using Google's services. Whether that's on iOS or Android, they probably could not care less. The larger the audience, the more their services get used.
The idea may be that android benefits a lot more from integration with other google products. Although I'm not sure on how inter-alphabet cooperation is going.
I has always bothered me that Google is branding a bookmark with an icon as an "app". Current app counts: Apple app store ~= 800K, Google Play ~= 900K, Chrome apps = number of URLs on the internet.
BTW forgot to add this might also mean that Google will open up the search info on Play Store just like they did for Google search to enable advertisers to choose keywords more intelligently. This alone will probably make up for any other issues people have related to this new initiative.
Is there any reason for google to allow this in their play store ? Serious question here, i cannot think of apple allowing the same kind of an app for google in app store...
It's actually pretty different because another middleman can basically arise only if it's a big success in the iOS App Store because coming up in Google searches would be impossible and more or less the same in the Play Store. So, Google is not just yet another intermediary.
I suspect this is more about Google asserting greater long-term control over apps in the store than anything else. If Google holds the keys it makes it harder, if not impossible, for an author to say 'no' to some unspecified future change(s). As an app developer having watched Google play this game over the last decade, I'd bet money on it.
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