Sunday, April 15, 2012

Update - 169



Posted: 08 Mar 2012 05:59 PM PST
htc_sensation_4_0
The first Android 4.0 update for an HTC phone is finally here! Today, HTC is making good on its promised of releasing the Android 4.0 update for the HTC Sensation and Sensation XE by rolling out the update to handset owners in Germany and a few Nordic countries. As expected , the Android 4.0 update is accompanied by HTC Sense 3.6 which features a few UI tweaks to accommodate new features included in the Ice Cream Sandwich update.
Now that the update is officially rolling out, we should see the update start popping up in other countries over the next few weeks. The HTC Sensation 4G from T-Mobile USA is also expected to receive the Android 4.0 update before the end of March, so keep a close eye out for an update notification over the next few weeks.
If you’re already received your Android 4.0 update for your HTC Sensation (or have played with the numerous leaks over the pas t month or two), leave us a comment below and let us know what you like about it. Some will be disappointed that they will not be treated to HTC Sense 4.0, but we’re sure people will enjoy Android 4.0 so much that they they won’t even notice – at least for a few weeks.


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 05:36 PM PST
Rule-your-wallet-VERIZON
Verizon has just announced the new iPad data packages, boasting the fact that they include hotspot services at no additional cost. Big Red offers the same feature for tablets with other operating systems. The hotspot may be a great incentive to buy a tablet, but seems rather unfair for smartphone owners.
Verizon’s tablet data plans are the following:
  • 1 GB for $20 (iPad only)
  • 2 GB for $30
  • 5 GB for $50
  • 10 GB for $80
Never mind the fact that iPads get an extra package to choose from, smartphone owners are paying identical prices for their data, while Verizon requests that they pay an extra $20 fee for tethering (mobile hotspot). Granted, mobile hotspot users get an extra 2 GB of data, though the extra data doesn’t quite make this a fair deal. The fact remains that smartphone users have to pay more for what is essentially the same service.
If given mobile hotspot at no cost, smartphone subscribers would be using the same bandwidth as those tablets. Meaning maintenance costs would probably amount to the same.
On the bright side, tablet users will be much happier about this change, and could be the reason why Verizon has set data plans in this manner. Asking a customer to sign a 2-year contract for a tablet is not easy, as such devices are also much more expensive and usually considered luxury items. Customers are less likely to purchase a tablet at full price.
But people don’t mind signing up for a smartphone, with some considering it to be a necessity. It could be argued that customers would not want to buy a data-connected tablet if they offered free tethering for smartphones. Users would just get a WiFi device, instead, or simply go without.
Regardless, such tactics are unjust currently, though those shared family data plans might make everything much better. Users will be able to share data among a plethora of devices without spending much more.
For now, though, we would really appreciate some equality among different platforms and devices. If there is no need to charge tablet users for hotspot services, there should be no reason for smartphone users to pay up. Give it some thought and let us know what you think. Do you believe it is ok for Verizon treat tablets and smartphones differently?


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 01:01 PM PST
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NVIDIA has already established their Tegra processor as the leading platform for Android games with their Tegra Zone program, and now the company wants to let you know that apps can also benefit from their unique 4-PLUS-1 architecture.
Today NVIDIA posted a new blog that highlights several new apps which are designed to take advantage of their quad-core Tegra 3 processor. Some of the apps like Splashtop and Snapseed we got a preview of at CES, but this is the first time we have seen PowerDirector Mobile from Cyberlink.
I can say from personal experience that my Tegra 3-powered Transformer Prime offers the best Android experience of any device I have tried. It’s my favorite Android device to game on, but I have wished for more applications that really took advantage of it.
Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA CEO, recently said, “We need to develop the technology to inspire content developers and applications developers to create these amazing applications.” The competition has been arguing that mobile quad-core processors are overkill, so it’s nice to see some developers start to take advantage of all the power that Tegra 3 has to offer.
From what we have seen at recent shows, it appears that Tegra Zone will start to highlight some of these new apps instead of just focusing on games. We think it’s a good direction for them to go, since it’s not always obvious which apps are optimized for quad-core processors.
Check out the quick promo video below to see what developers are saying about working with Tegra 3.

New apps that benefit from Tegra 3 include:
  • Splashtop THD from Splashtop Inc. – allows you to seamlessly stream content from your desktop onto your Tegra 3 tablet. Whether you're playing the latest FPS shooters or streaming high-res movies from your desktop to your Tegra 3 tablet, Splashtop's remote desktop has got you covered wherever you go. Available now on Google Play. Available now on Google Play.
  • Photaf THD Panorama Pro from Oren Bengigi – a new photo-stitching app that allows you to combine a sequence of photos to create a panoramic view of any scenery. This app accelerates image stitching time by using all four Tegra 3 processing cores. That means more time to create cool photos and less time waiting around. Available now on Google Play. Available now on Google Play.
  • Snapseed from Nik Software – one of the easiest, most intuitive photo editors available for your Tegra 3 device. Take a picture, customize it to your liking and immediately send to friends and family. With Snapseed, you never knew your photos could look so professional, so quick and easy with your Tegra 3 mobile device. Coming to Google Play this summer.
  • PowerDirector Mobile from CyberLink– this app was once a powerful desktop-based video editing tool. Thanks to the Tegra 3's high-performance and battery-friendly 4-PLUS-1 architecture, PowerDirector Mobile will give you the power to manipulate and edit videos on your mobile device. Coming to Google Play this fall.


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 12:19 PM PST
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The Q4 2011 results are in, and it paints a potentially bleak picture for Android. Looking in depth at the numbers provided by AT&T and Verizon, Apple sold about 3 times as many iPhones as all Android handsets combined in the quarter. This could simply be a fluke, as Apple released the iPhone 4S in the quarter, and Apple's sales tend to spike in the few months after a device is released.
There are certainly some positive signs for Android in the Q4 data; the percentage of new smartphone buyers in the United States last quarter choosing Android over iPhone was 57% to Apple’s 34%, according to the NPD. Samsung sold over 300 million phones last year, with a good chunk of those being Android smartphones, and manufacturers such as Samsung, HTC, and Motorola are betting the farm on Google’s operating system.
Still, the potential for danger is there, and unless things take a turn in 2012 and 2013, then iOS may once again overtake Android as the leading smartphone platform.

The Paradox of Choice: Why too much of a good thing is not a great thing

Though the fluke effect certainly could play a role, there is at least one other explanation that could be driving sales away from Android; a phenomenon explained by Dr. Barry Schwartz in The Paradox of Choice. If you've walked into any carrier store recently, you've certainly experienced the abundance of choices available in choosing Android smartphones.
Handset makers and carriers have gotten a bit carried away with the sheer number of devices being released, and there are simply too many Android options for consumers to make an educated decision as to which smartphone is going to end up in their pockets.
According to Dr. Schwartz, when individuals are presented with more and more choices, the negatives associated with choosing (increased time to make a decision, increased energy expended, self-doubt, anxiety, and dread) increase the stress we experience until we become overloaded.
Though some choice is good, more choice isn’t necessarily better. As a society, our satisfaction with things decreases as the number of choices available to us increases. We’ve all felt that frustration of buying a new Android smartphone, only to feel buyer’s remorse when a newer and better model was released merely months later.
We have an abundance of choices when it comes to smartphones. To demonstrate this idea, one needn't look further than Motorola and Verizon, arguably the  worst offenders of the bunch. On Verizon's network alone, Motorola currently offering the Droid 3, Droid X2, Droid Bionic, Droid RAZR, Droid RAZR Maxx, Droid Pro, and the Droid 4, with 6 of these 7 devices all launching over the course of a 9 month period. Adding to these offerings, Verizon sells the LG Spectrum, Samsung Galaxy Nexus, Samsung Illusion, HTC Rezound, Samsung Stratosphere, HTC Thunderbolt, LG Enlighten, LG Vortex, Pantech Breakout, Casio G'Zone Commander, HTC Rhyme, Samsung Droid Charge, Sony Xperia Play, and the HTC Droid Incredible 2.
Customers who walk into a Verizon store are presented with 21 different options for Android smartphones, and that doesn't even count the number of customizations (16 vs 32GB options, multiple color choices, etc) offered by some of the devices. This compares to 2 models of iPhone (4 and 4s, each with a few layers of customizability), 4 different Blackberry devices, and 1 Windows Phone device.
The number of Android devices available outnumbers all other smartphone platforms by a factor of 3 to 1, though they were outsold by the iPhone by at least a few hundred thousand devices last quarter. This is despite Verizon heavily pushing their 4G LTE service, which currently only Android phones are able to take advantage of.
Adding to this problem, carrier stores are generally a big ball of disorganization, with high-end devices mixed in with entry-level phones, the iPhone generally off on its own display, and no clear signage telling people what's what. I've walked into multiple carrier stores recently, and can see how easily people can get confused in these places. With confusion comes the feeling of being overwhelmed, as the choice of which smartphone to purchase is a long-term decision, with customers being locked in to that phone and cell service for multiple years.
Adding the abundance of choice problem to the disorganization in most carrier stores, one can see the potential of a problem spiraling out of control.

Who's Buying Smartphones in the Next Few Years?

Android’s choice problem gets a bit more important when you consider the people most likely to buy a smartphone in the next several years. Though there will certainly be several folks upgrading to newer smartphones, these users are generally tied to their respective ecosystems. Several of them drop hundreds of dollars (or more) into applications that would need to be repurchased if they decided they no longer wanted an iPhone or an Android device.
The biggest potential for growth then comes from customers who still own feature phones. These laggards have largely stayed away from the smartphone market, either not wanting to complicate their lives with being connected to the internet 24/7, or they are older or technologically-averse individuals who don't want the complications associated with learning new technology. These individuals have largely stayed away from the smartphone market, but will likely adopt the technology soon as the cost of these devices drops to the point of mass affordability. People in this category outnumber the current number of smartphone users, making this market the key to determine the market leader in smartphone OSes.
If Android doesn't solve some of the perceived issues with the platform now, it runs the risk of losing out in this important battle for the mainstream customers.
Over the next few years, the smartphone market share battle will be waged over those customers who still own feature phones, and unless Android manufacturers change the way they do business, Google runs the risk of its Android platform on the losing end of this fight.

The Solutions

Solution 1: Remodel Carrier Stores to Provide Clearer Choices
One of the bigger problems is the sheer lack of organization (or, perceived lack of organization) in most carrier stores today. Sure, there's a display for the iPad and iPhone, as well as one for other tablets, but when it comes to handsets, all bets are off. Phones are generally spread out throughout the rest of the store or, worse, lumped together so that all smartphones (and perhaps smartphones and featurephones) are placed side by side with little other than a little placard to tell them apart.
In a recent TED Talk, Dr. Sheena Iyengar highlights the choice issue further, and shows how businesses can make choices easier on customers by limiting the number of similar items they put on their store shelves. Though Dr. Iyengar mostly focused on retail and the number of brands of olive oil certain stores sell to customers, one can easily make the parallel to the cell phone market.

Carriers could even the playing field and help differentiate their products in an important way if they choose to lay out their stores differently. In a nutshell, carriers should section their store off into 5 different categories:
  1. High-End ($200+) Smartphones
  2. Mid-Range ($100-200) Smartphones
  3. Budget ($0-100) Smartphones
  4. Tablets
  5. Feature Phones
Placing phones into these categories would allow customers who want to purchase a smartphone to isolate their choices based on how much they're willing to spend on a product. This will also keep the number of choices a consumer must make to below or around 10, which is approximately the number of choices we can actually rationally decide from.
Verizon is making progress here, as their new store layout somewhat splits devices off into categories. 4G/LTE smartphones have their own display sections, as do tablets. Still, though, as the number of 4G LTE smartphones explodes, we’ll likely have the same problem on our hands unless action is taken.
Solution 2: Commitment from Handset Makers to Reduce the Number of Devices Being Released
Though the carriers' getting their organizational acts in order does much to reduce the problem, they represent only one side of issue. Handset manufacturers must also commit to reducing the number of devices they churn out in a given period of time. Ideally, instead of releasing multiple devices and hoping one is able to stick and penetrate the market, handset makers should focus their efforts on releasing no more than one entry into each of the above named categories in a 6 or 12 month period, with the possibility of releasing a 4th in the alternative form factors (slide-out QWERTY, Blackberry-like device, dual-screens, etc.).
This solution would have a dual-impact; not only will there be a more reasonable set of choices for smartphone devices, the quality of the phones being released should increase as research and development teams will be able to focus the same amount of effort on fewer devices.
Some manufacturers have already indicated that they are headed in this direction; HTC has recently announced that it will focus on quality over quantity in 2012, but have not yet given details into what that declaration entails. We hope that HTC sees the writing on the wall as well, and wants their bet on Android to continue to be successful in the long-term. HTC has taken some significant steps with the One series it launched at Mobile World Congress, and we hope these devices (and a de-cluttering of HTC Sense UI) are what HTC chooses to focus on this year.
But HTC is just one of the major players out there. Motorola, Samsung, and LG all should focus on quantity over quality, and release fewer devices in 2012. This will (should) allow these companies to spend more time and energy on UI development, and less thinking about bigger and better devices to release 3 months after their last great device (looking at you, Moto).

Final Thoughts

2012 has started off on the right track. Verizon and T-Mobile are rolling out new stores that they hope will better enhance the customer experience. We obviously hope that they take some of our suggestions and section off their stores so that they are better organized, allowing their customers to better make their phone purchasing decisions.
While HTC is leading the way in reducing the sheer number of devices available to customers, Mobile World Congress brought news of multiple new devices from the likes of LG and Huawei, and about 15 tablets from Samsung (okay, a slight exaggeration). Instead of releasing three 10″ tablets, we hope that Samsung puts all of their favorite features into one flavor of 10″ tablet and support the heck out of it. Similar too with cell phones.
Sure, choice is a good thing, and helps Android stand out from the few devices competitors offer, but when it comes to the significant (and sometimes stressful) choice about which device ends up in our pockets for too years, too much of a good thing does not amount to a great thing.


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 10:53 AM PST
Amazon tablets
Amazon changed the tablet market with its Kindle Fire. Around 5-6 million units were sold just during the 4th quarter of 2011, quickly propelling Amazon to the #2 spot in tablet sales, behind Apple’s iPad. According to recent rumors, Amazon plans to continue its success by adding at least two more devices to its line-up. One would be a 7-inch follow-up to the Fire, while the other one would have a 10-inch form-factor.
Despite the fact that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos used to have a strong opinion about not needing a tablet, Amazon’s foray into tablets has been nothing short of extremely successful as Amazon sees demand drop for its e-ink products.
We have also been hearing of a possible 8.9″ device, though according to the sources this was replaced by the upcoming 10-inch version. Sales are doing great, and Amazon is expecting many users to follow the lead. But, will they?
The Kindle Fire’s success was mainly due to its revolutionary price, as the tablet itself doesn’t quite meet our expectations. A $200 tablet was simply outrageous in the time of its release. We are now hearing about a possible Asus Nexus tablet going for $200, and the ASUS MeMo 370T going for $250. Both mentioned tablets have a Tegra 3 processor, along with a full Android 4.0 OS instead of Kindle’s customary UI.
Unless the user genuinely prefers the Amazon UI, why would anyone pick a Kindle Fire over a Tegra 3 tablet at a similar price? Granted, we know nothing about the upcoming Amazon tablets and even less about their prices, but Amazon really needs to throw a curve ball in order to compete with upcoming affordable Tegra 3 products. Amazon is known for selling hardware at a loss in order to get software and media purchases down the road, but how much lower can they go?
With the Kindle Fire, Amazon has hooked people into both its hardware and its ecosystem. Mainstream consumers don’t really know their Kindle Fire runs Android, and will likely go with the same look and feel device when it comes time to upgrade. This is regardless of what similarly-priced alternatives are out there at the time.
Regardless, we will have to wait and see what happens over the course of the year. In the meantime, a little speculation couldn’t hurt. Do you guys plan on getting one of the upcoming Tegra 3 tablets, or would you rather get an upcoming Amazon tablet? Does price influence your decision? Sound off in the comments.


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 09:54 AM PST
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Early this week Samsung revealed they had an “exciting special announcement” coming tomorrow in Austin at 4 PM CST. This led to all kinds of wild speculation (that we love) and today Chris Hall of Pocket-Lint reported that Samsung would be announcing the rumored Galaxy Tab 11.6.
That would have been a nice response to yesterday’s new iPad announcement, but Samsung just sent out a new press release to inform us their big news is a demo of Angry Birds Space on the Galaxy Note. Samsung and Rovio will be on hand to demo the game, which features exclusive content for Galaxy Note users.
Back to the Galaxy Tab 11.6, we still expect some kind of announcement will be made in the coming months. I predicted it would be announced at Mobile World Congress, but I was wrong.
Rumored specs of the Galaxy Tab 11.6 include:
  • 11.6 inch display with 2560 x 1600 WXQGA resolution
  • 2 GHz Exynos 5250 (2x ARM Cortex-A15 CPUs, quad-core ARM Mali-T604 GPU)
  • Android 4.x
We will be in Austin tomorrow to check out Samsung’s event, so check back for some hands-on video of Angry Birds Space. If you will be in the Austin area next week, don’t forget to come party with us at the gdgt Live event on Monday. Samsung will also there, so you might get to play the new Angry Birds if you show up.


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 09:20 AM PST
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It’s no secret that HTC is making a big deal about the HTC One and its image capture capabilities. If you watched HTC’s 45-minute unveiling of the HTC One at Mobile World Congress, it’s pretty clear that the new ImageSense technology and dedicated imaging chip inside all HTC One phones are the new features HTC is hoping will set their devices apart from the competition. Late last week we got to see HTC’s official sample picture captured by the HTC One, but now we’re getting a first look at real-world images taken by real people.
HTC’s Larry Meadows and Wyatt Lewin recently went for a sunrise hike up Camelback Mountain in Arizona and took the HTC One X along for the tip. While last week’s sample images were impressive, this second set of images from the HTC One are a little underwhelming. The color and vibrancy are gone and the detail in the images is missing.
one_x_pictures htc_one_x_sample_piictures (1) htc_one_x_sample_piictures (2) htc_one_x_sample_piictures (3) htc_one_x_sample_piictures (4) htc_one_x_sample_piictures (5)
Anyone planning to buy an HTC One phone may feel a little disappointed to see that images not taken by a professional photographer with the HTC One don’t look much better than pictures any of us could capture with our current Android phones. However, we urge you to keep in mind that the pictures were all taken in a pretty dark environment before sunrise and in a shadow of a mountain. We hope HTC releases a few more pictures that will give us a better representation of what the HTC One X can do in everyday situations.
What do you think of the second set of images taken with the HTC One?


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 09:13 AM PST
angry-birds-space-teaser
Welcome to our new column Android Gaming Weekly, where we will recap all the new releases and highlights every Thursday. We post small bits throughout the week related to Android games, but readers have requested a condensed summary that makes it easier to keep up with all the latest news. Read on for this week’s best in Android gaming.

Angry Birds Space


Today Rovio and NASA released a new trailer for Angry Birds Space. In the video we get to see the first actual gameplay of Angry Birds in a gravity free environment. Most of you seem bored with all the Angry Birds updates, but this latest title appears to offer something new. The game is scheduled to be released on March 22nd, possibly as an initial exclusive on the Galaxy Note. Check out the official site for the latest details.
If you can’t get enough Angry Birds, Rovio just released a Cherry Blossom Festival update to Angry Birds Seasons that adds 15 new levels.

Dark Legends


This week Austin-based Spacetime Studios released a gameplay trailer for their upcoming MMO Dark Legends. After successful titles like Pocket Legends and Star Legends, Spacetime is now turning to the world of vampires. In this latest title players must embrace the secret societies of vampires to challenge the hordes of undead, werewolves, demons and humans that hunt them. I recently played the game at Mobile World Congress and it was the best looking MMO I’ve seen on Android. Be on the lookout for the official launch date.

Reign of Amira


Earlier this year we reported that Qualcomm’s in-house game studio would produce one Android title per year, and Reign of Amria is their first. This free game is a follow up to the Desert Winds mini game that was previously available and looks to take full advantage of Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon S4 processor. Qualcomm also announced several more exclusive titles coming to their GameCommand app including The Reem, The Ball, and Sega’s Virtua Tennis Challenge.

Temple Run


Temple Run is one of the most popular games on iOS with over 40 million downloads and tons of Android fans have been asking when it will be ported over. This week the developer Imangi Studios finally announced it would arrive on March 27th. “We are excited to finally share the Android release date with our fans who have been so enthusiastic and supportive of Temple Run,” said Keith Shepherd, co-founder of Imangi Studios. “By expanding to more mobile devices, we hope to provide the same addictive and fast-paced gameplay to an entirely new group of players.”

Dozens of games for only $0.49


In celebration of the new Google Play Store, there are dozens of games on sale for only $0.49. My top pics include Shadowgun, Osmos HD, World of Goo, Asphalt 6, Dead Space, and NOVA 2. Gameloft has also informed us that Modern Combat 3 will be on sale for $0.49 this Fri-Mon, so be sure to grab it if you have yet to check out the best first person shooter on Android.

Games I’m currently playing


World of Goo: I have no idea how I overlooked this title, but I’m so glad I picked it up in the $0.49 sale. World of Goo is one of the most original and entertaining puzzle games I have ever played. If you haven’t tried it yet, I promise you won’t be dissapointed.
The Sims FreePlay: Words can’t really describe why I play this game, but I have somehow been sucked back into The Sims and I’m not afraid to admit it. The game is free, so no harm in checking it out. EA designed the game to encourage in-app purchase of their game currency, but you can still progress through the game without spending a dime.

What are you playing?

Find any great new Android games this week? Share your favorites in the comments below so we can check them out.


Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:41 AM PST
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Let me be honest. I didn’t get much work done yesterday because I was glued to all the live blogs covering Apple’s new iPad announcement. Obviously I’m an Android fan, but I’m still interested in other mobile technology and I follow all of Apple’s big events.
So what did I think about the new iPad? The “resolutionary” retina display is freaking amazing (seriously, I want that in my next tablet) and the new iPhoto and iMovie look like awesome tools, but other than that I wasn’t impressed much.
After the event, the Apple-obsessed Samsung quickly put out a press release to compare content creation features between the new iPad and the recently announced Galaxy Note 10.1. I found this pretty hilarious, but it really got me thinking.
Do Android fans really care about the new iPad? And do Apple fans give a damn about any Android tablet?
Most Android fans already know, “best smartphone” or “best tablet” is a title that any given device can claim for several weeks (sometimes days). The new iPad is the best tablet available for the moment, but Samsung will quickly roll out their rumored Galaxy Tab 11.6 with a faster processor, faster GPU, and even higher resolution display than Apple.
I’m sure Samsung’s new tablet could be superior in every way to the new iPad, but that doesn’t mean that Apple fans will suddenly start lining up to buy one.
As Android chief Andy Rubin recently put it, “The educated consumer realizes it now that they’re either picking the Apple ecosystem or the Microsoft ecosystem or the Google ecosystem.”
If you have already purchased a couple Android phones and maybe a tablet, you have chosen Google’s ecosystem. I’ve followed Apple’s ecosystem closely the last couple of years, and I haven’t seen anything that would make me consider a switch. The thing that is most appealing to me about Google’s ecosystem is choice and I don’t foresee Apple ever competing in that area.
But Apple fans don’t really care about choice. They will keep buying anything that Apple puts out. Jolie O’Dell of VentureBeat put it nicely when she said, “it's only 30 percent about the tech and 70 percent about the branding.” The new iPad is already starting to run out of stock online. And I don’t have a problem with that. Apple makes great products and their customers are loyal to the brand.
I just think it’s pointless to keep comparing Android products to Apple products when neither side really cares about the other.
So again I ask the question. Does the new iPad make anyone want to switch ecosystems? Check out the official iPad trailer below and let me know if you will be lining up in front of an Apple store on March 16th.



Posted: 08 Mar 2012 07:00 AM PST
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Google is slowly but surely trying to build up a full content ecosystem to compete with the likes of Apple’s iTunes and Amazon’s store. The search giant has added books, movies, and music to its content repertoire, and according to a rumor posted on the unofficial Google news site Google Operating System, Google may soon add audiobooks, magazines, and newspapers to the mix. TechCrunch adds that Google might add TV shows to its video service, citing Google’s recent snatching up of domains related to Google Play, which included GooglePlayTV.com
These features are already available on both iTunes and Amazon, and adding this content to the Google Play store will help Google better compete in the content world. With approximately 50% of smartphone users owning devices that run Google’s Android operating system, there is certainly a wealth of potential customers to draw from. Since these individuals are already tied into Google’s ecosystem, Google has a strong advantage in wooing customers into its service.
Expanding the ecosystem makes a lot of sense for Google, as the company is rumored to be working on a Google Play tablet made by ASUS. Google hopes to build on the successes enjoyed by the Kindle Fire tablet, which in just three months became the best selling Android tablet out there. The Google Play tablet will bring all of Google’s Play services into one media-consumption device, and could be Android’s best bet to steal customers away from the iPad.
I’m excited for more content to come to Google Play, and already read a ton of magazines on my Transformer Prime via the Kindle Store. What else do you guys want to see in Google Play? Sound off in the comments.


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