Google is set to challenge Apple, Spotify and several players in the digital music space by launching Google Audio, TechCrunch reported Oct. 21. Wired reports that it will offer enhanced music search with a streaming function. Searching for an artist or song will bring up a box with a streaming link assigned to stream from either Lala or iLike.
Also, Google may be taking a page out of Apple's design-the-device-yourself handbook by releasing an actually Google Phone, goes the second big rumor to come out the Googleplex this week.
UPDATE: Google is set to challenge Apple, Spotify and several
players in the digital music space by launching Google Audio, TechCrunch
reported Oct. 21, citing multiple sources.
Google spent the last several weeks striking deals to
seed the service with music content from the major music labels, according to
the report. The service will allegedly be a departure from the Google China search
and download music service the company launched in 2008.
"This new service will be available for at least
U.S. users, our sources confirm, although it isn't clear if it's a download or
streaming service, or both,"
wrote TechCrunch's Michael Arrington.
Resource Library:
Google will offer enhanced music
search with a streaming function. Searching for an artist or song will bring up
a box with a streaming link assigned to streams from either Lala or iLike. In an update, Arrington said the launch will be Oct. 28 at a Hollywood concert event.
That's it on the skimpy details, though a streaming model
would make sense given Google's predilection for running applications on the
Internet cloud.
Google declined to comment. If such a service does come to fruition it would be yet
another front where Google is waging war versus one-time buddy Apple, which has
put up a wall by rejecting the Google Voice phone management application.
Google and Apple are increasingly butting hands in the
smartphone arena, where Google is seeing T-Mobile, Sprint, Verizon Wireless to
offer smartphones based on its Android mobile operating system.
The companies
are also competing in mobile applications, and Google is expecting to issue the
Chrome Operating System for netbooks next year, challenging Windows and Mac OS
X.
But that may not be all. Google may be taking a page out
of Apple's design-the-device-yourself handbook by releasing an actually Google
Phone, goes the second big rumor to come out the Googleplex this week.
Northeast Securities analyst Ashok Kumar said Google's design partners told him Google is working with a smartphone
manufacturer, possibly HTC, to have a Google-branded phone available this year
through retailers. The gadget will be powered by Qualcomm baseband chips.
The idea is to bypass traditional carriers so that Google
could control what features and applications run on it -- the exact solution
for situations such as Apple's treatment of Google Voice. However, this could
also undermine efforts from Motorola, which is betting the company on its Cliq
and Droid smartphones, and others such as Dell and Samsung.
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