Google retires Android Market, now called Google Play

Out of the blue, Google has retired the Android Market, effective, well, right now. The old Android Market is being replaced by Google Play, which is essentially Google’s iTunes. The app store is still there, just renamed, and is now joined by Books, Movies, and Music to form this new content hub for Android devices. Android 2.2+ devices should be getting an update for Android Market in the next few days, making the transition for the devices as well.

Personally, I don’t know what to think about this. Nothing except the name/logo has really changed for the app side of things, and  I doubt I’ll ever see any of the other three categories here in Norway, so I couldn’t even tell you what those contain. I can’t help but wonder what the point is though, Android Market frankly seems like a heck of a lot more neutral term than Play, especially if you’re trying to convince businesses that you’re as “professional” as iOS when it comes to apps. Google Play doesn’t exactly sound like somewhere you’d go to download enterprise software, I mean.

There’s also some confusion to be expected from a name change like this, not to mention millions of links that will link to something besides what they’re saying. Market has become a common, well known term by now, and “resetting” that seems rather counter-productive if you ask me. Then again, with forced design changes that people (me included) have a tendency to hate on everything from YouTube to Gmail over the last year, Google seems to be so determined to change things that it has lost the ability to actually check if anyone wants the change first. If nothing else though, the launch of Google Play has brought with it an app sale over at the…Android…Market…Play…place.

[Google Play via Google+Reader” target=”_blank”>Droid-life]