Google overhauls Android Market for smartphones, adds bookstore

By Rachel King July 12, 2011, 2:42pm PDT
Summary
Google has revamped its Android Market app for smartphones with a brand new look as well as some more products for purchase.
Topics
Google Inc., Android Market, Smart Phone, Smart Phones, Cellular Phones, Handhelds, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Hardware, Rachel King
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Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.
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Google has revamped its Android Market app for smartphones with a brand new look as well as some more products for purchase.
The Android Developers Blog points out that this new interface could work better for both customers and developers. The new UI is intended to be more engaging as it showcases top apps and games while providing a quicker path to purchasing products. For developers, this ideally means that there are more opportunities for apps to get picked up and downloaded.
(Although, doesn’t the box-like new design, as seen in the side screenshot, look a tad reminiscent of the home screen on Windows Phone 7? Or is it just me?)
Some of the new features include more lists (i.e. Top Paid, Top Free, Top Grossing, etc.) that are country-specific, and individual app product pages have been rearranged to streamline the buying process.
Aside from the new user interface, Android users might be more interested to learn that they can now purchase books, which will be linked to their Google accounts like on the iriver Story HD, as well as rent movies starting at $1.99.
Otherwise, it’s likely to be business as usual. Even as nice as the new design might be, it might be awhile before Google can catch up to the 15 billion downloads record secured by Apple’s App Store.
Available for smartphones running at least Android 2.2 (Froyo) and higher, the new version of Android Market will be rolling out worldwide in the coming weeks.
In case you want a closer look at the new version of Android Market without having to reach for your smartphone (or if you don’t have an Android phone at all), then check out the following promo video:
Related:
Google Android Market malware problem escalates
Google needs to clean up its Android Market malware mess
Google’s e-book effort will need a better horse than iriver Story HD
Two newspapers to sell Android tablets with digital subscriptions
Google Maps for Android now includes transit navigation for 400+ cities
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http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-overhauls-android-market-for-smartphones-adds-bookstore/52277?tag=nl.e539