Google picks up PushLife to fortify its rumored digital music strategy. PushLife lets users shuttle their Apple iTunes and Windows Media player music to Google's Android and Research In Motion's BlackBerry platforms.
Google, long rumored to be creating a Web-based music
service to compete with Apple and now Amazon.com, confirmed it has purchased mobile
music startup PushLife for about $25 million.
"We are excited to welcome the PushLife team to
Google. We believe the team has a wealth of experience building cool mobile
applications, and we think they'll make a great addition to our mobile team,"
a Google spokesperson told eWEEK.
Startup
North broke the
purchase price news. A source familiar with the buy told eWEEK the PushLife
team, which includes founder and former RIM alum Ray Reddy, is moving to
Google's Waterloo office in downtown Kitchener, Ontario.
Google isn't saying specifically what PushLife will do
for the company.
Interestingly, the startup said in a brief note on its
Website that it
will be working on "improving the way applications look and making them
easier to use," but mentions nothing about any music applications.
But given PushLife's pedigree, the buy is almost certainly a move to bolster the rumored Google cloud music strategy.
PushLife lets users port their Apple iTunes and Windows
Media player music from desktops to smartphones based on Google's Android and Research In Motion's BlackBerry
platforms.
Users can manage wallpapers, music, videos and ringtones, and create and
edit playlists on their smartphones. Users can also share their playlists via
Facebook and Twitter.
The move comes roughly a year after Google
picked up Simplify Media, which lets users move music they own
on their desktop that isn't copy-protected and stream it to an Android phone.
The deal also comes less than one week after the
Tech From 10 blog discovered a music app in a developers' version of Android
Market that is listed as Version 3.0.
The app, shown in more screenshots on
Droid Life, is akin to the Android 3.0 "Honeycomb" music player
included on tablets such as Motorola Mobility's Xoom.
Clearly, a major new Google music app is afoot, which
will help the company combat iTunes and
Amazon.com's new digital music locker, which lets users store music in Amazon's
bank of servers and stream over the Web on any PC, Mac, Android phone or
Android tablet.
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