From “Android Market” to “Google Play”

By Unknown - April 15, 2012

Did you know that Androidhas grown 250% over the last year alone? According to Google they have 850,000 activations every day and 300 million Android devices (Google sanctioned) scouting the globe at present.

At last year’s Mobile World Congress the Android Market had more than 150,000 apps. Numbers for the early months of 2012 suggest that the Android Markets belly has swelled up to now include more than 450,000 apps!

Android is now simply huge and there will surely come a time when developers make apps for Android before they make one for Apples iOS.

So What Led to Google Play?

So considering the above stats, you would think that everything is hunky dory at Google’s Android right? Not really! Google Android Market still plays second fiddle toApple’s Apps Store. This is one of the reasons that Google has recently remodeled and renamed its “Android Market” to the dashing new “Google Play”.

If you look at the path that led to Google Play you’ll see that the change was imminent. The Android Market has undergone a lot of changes over the past year or so. Beginning as a humble standalone app store it ended up encompassing music, videos and e-books, which Google Play offers and promotes equally, along with apps.

According to Google’s Engineering Director, Chris Yerga, Google had been thinking about the crossover to Google Play for quite some time and now finally decided that the time had come to pull the trigger.

Is Google Play Just a Facelift?

The only problem with the cool and hip Google Play is that they didn’t actually fix what was wrong, it’s still almost impossible to find precisely what you’re looking for. The Android Market was not well organized and same is the case with Google Play, which is why it seems more like a cosmetic upgrade to the end user.

However, it should be noted that with Google Play, a user’s pertinent media is stored on Google’s Cloud and is accessible via a web browser. For the techies this translates into data being stored on Google servers at no additional charge, freeing up much needed space on their handheld devices. Google Play will prompt an automatic updates to the new system on user devices so much so that the functionality and user interface of services aren’t going to undergo much change.

Apart from this, there are not many changes to expect with Google Play for your handheld either. The most obvious is that the Android Market will be renamed to‘The Google Play Store‘. Other name changes include Google Music app being given the moniker Google Play Music.

What’s with the Name ‘PLAY’?

I for one like the name Google Play. You can “play” games, videos and music, which is all available on Google Play. Yes, there are things that you don’t actually play, like books, but I believe the overall feel of an app store needs to encapsulate playfulness. If you want “serious” go get blackberry services, connect it to your work email server and work from home too.

However you can’t please everyone, and you will find people whining about how the word Play does not befit an apps store (all the while accepting that it sounds cool); some saying that the word “play” has obvious connotations with games, time wasters, Follies etc.

But if you think about it, the new name might actually signify promoting things you could “play”, as previously the Android Market had Apps front and center and the other content was buried under hard to see tabs (which most likely resulted in a low download rate). Now the mantle is shared equally by music, movies and books.

The name also subtly suggests that the distribution service (aka Google Play) is not just for Android and available for more than just mobile devices.

The burning question however remains: Will Google Play be able to pull consumers away from independent Android app markets such as Amazon Appstore for Android?

Personally, I don’t think so. What about you? Have you had a chance to play with Google Play? Do you think it’s just a facelift or something that will turn the tables for Google’s Android Apps Store?

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