The US Army acted on long-term plans Friday and opened its custom mobile app store in prototype form. The Army Software Marketplace
[iOS device required] is currently serving those who have their own
iPhones, iPod touch players, and iPads a dozen training apps safe to use
in Common Operating Environment levels of security. Among the examples
are the Blue Book for beginning soldiers, the Social Media Handbook for
sharing details, and other basics.
The
Marketplace's is both to provide a single stop for relevant,
Army-approved information and tools as well as encourage a closer link
between Army-friendly app developers and the soldiers themselves.
Officials hadn't said whether or not iOS apps would be native or
web-only. Apple doesn't normally allow native apps outside of the App
Store, although the Army could use enterprise permissions to push apps
directly to devices greenlit for access. The Army promised both
"web-based and downloadable" content.
Despite the company leaning towards Android for official devices, support for Google's platform was coming "soon." BlackBerry and Windows Phone weren't mentioned.
While the effort doesn't cover the most secure environments,
it marks a major step in bringing smartphones and tablets into the US
military's operations. The force has both wanted to offer some level of
accommodation for personal use and, ultimately, to provide help in the
field. An expected Android implementation could help troops better
report their status in a war zone by providing position, voice, and
photos at the same time.
Google reboots Android Market, launches Google Play
Google
is rolling up music, e-books, movies, and apps into a single-branded
service called Google Play. The reboot comes as some of Android's
services underachieve as moneymakers.
Google is rebuilding
Android Market.
The Internet giant, looking to create a more comprehensive source for
movies, apps, music, and e-books, is folding Google Music and Google
eBookstore into one store, now renamed Google Play, according to Jamie
Rosenberg, director of digital content for Google. The changes go into
effect today.
Google Play marks a radical departure from Android Market, which has been a fixture of the company's mobile platform since the debut of Android
more than three years ago. The move is a tacit admission that offering
apps, games, and e-books--the main features of Android Market--isn't
enough to remain competitive even as rival app stores spring up. Google
Play is designed to break down the walls separating the company's
disparate offerings, Rosenberg said.
"Google Play will become a
single experience for users," Rosenberg said. "This creates a more
powerful experience around Android and also increases opportunities for
content partners" to interact with more of Google's offerings.
Busta Rhymes, the rap artist, helped Google launch Google Music in Los Angeles in November.
(Credit:
Greg Sandoval/CNET)
It's a shocking branding shift, considering the resources and energy
spent into building the Android name, which will live on as the brand
for Google's mobile operating system.
The move is likely to appease critics who have argued that Google's
approach to digital content is fragmented. Services that should blend
well together often seem out of sync. One example of this is Google
Music and YouTube's music videos.
When Google executives were pitching the idea of Google Music to the
labels throughout much of 2010 and 2011, they spoke of closely
integrating the service with YouTube's music videos, one of the bright spots in online music distribution. Yet the services never were combined.
The formation of Google Play means that music will no longer remain a standalone service, Rosenberg said.
While a phenomenally successful platform with broad adoption, Android
Market has struggled to generate the kind of revenue Apple's App Store
sees with its apps. Launched in October 2008, Android Market still lags
far behind Apple in revenues, according to numerous studies. Last month,
Distimo, a company that tracks data on app stores, reported that Apple's iOS App Store generated four times the total revenue of Android Market.
As a result, developers have resorted to changing their business models,
relying on mobile ads instead of up-front payments. Others have
embraced the "freemium" model, which consists of giving away an app with
the hope that the user pays a small fee down the line, either for
additional services or extra levels or weapons in a game. Research In
Motion, which has a much smaller BlackBerry App World storefront, boasts
that its app store is more profitable for its developers than Android Market.
Android's inability to generate significant revenue from content extended to Google Music,
CNET reported two weeks ago. Music industry sources said Google Music
had not met expectations on revenue or customer adoption. Following that
report, others wrote that Google Music was actually losing customers.
Rosenberg declined to discuss revenues but denied that the service is
losing customers. Google Music is up to 4 million users, he said, and
the company is "excited about Google Music's growth."
The Google Play strategy has been in the works for some time, Rosenberg
said, but did not specify how long. He stressed that the changes, which
may take several days to roll out across the Android platform, won't
alter libraries or playlists.
All in all, while the shift to Google Play is the biggest
acknowledgement yet that Android's content strategy was a bust, the
company appears headed in the right direction. Bundling all the Android
services into one area and under one brand will make it easier to market
and hopefully help customers discover them as well.
The strategy could make Google Play more competitive with Apple's iTunes. On the
Mac, iTunes includes a comprehensive library of music, movies, shows, and apps for purchase.
At the same time, Google's own vendor partners have struck deals with
film, television, and music studios to sell their own media through
custom app stores already loaded onto the mobile devices.
Samsung Electronics, for instance, has its own media store with shows
and movies, while HTC has dabbled with music content and has invested
heavily in audio quality with the acquisition of a majority stake in
Beats. Amazon, meanwhile, has attracted developers looking to build apps
for its heavily customized version of Android, and it already offers
streaming videos through its Amazon Prime service. Greg Sandoval
Greg
Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. Based in
New York, Sandoval is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the
Los Angeles Times.
Roger
Cheng is an executive editor in charge of east coast operations for
CNET News. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and
wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a
decade. He's a hard-core Trojan alum and Los Angeles Lakers fan.
Soon the must-have option for new cars
won't be a sunroof or leather seats—it will be ultra high-speed,
high-bandwidth connectivity that revolutionizes the in-vehicle
experience for drivers and passengers. Within the LTE Connected Car,
consumers will be able to access network- and cloud-based applications
that put on-demand entertainment, infotainment, diagnostics, navigation
and much more at their fingertips.
It all started with a simple question. What happens
if you connect a car to an ultra high-speed mobile network? Several
innovative companies in very different industries were asking this same
question. And when the ng Connect Program brought them together, the
LTE Connected Car Service Concept was born.
And consumers are very interested! A recent Market Advantage study*
of American and European consumers indicated that they are willing to
pay for these innovative social, entertainment and business applications
- if they are easy to use and offer a high quality of service.
Navigation reigns as most the desired feature overall with Enhanced GPS
and Maintenance Tracking consistently preferred applications across all
consumer segments in the United States. Sixty percent of respondents in
Europe found the service appealing. Across both geographies, the appeal
of the LTE Connected Car was strongest among the 'Under 35' age group.
Automotive Partner
The Connected Car concept vehicle is built upon the
base of a 2010 Toyota Prius. The Toyota Prius is one of the leading
hybrid electric mid-size cars in the United States. According to the US
EPA in 2007, the 2008 Prius was named the most fuel-efficient car sold
in the US. The EPA and California Air Resources Board also rate the
Prius as among the cleanest vehicles sold in the US based on non-CO2 emissions.
Technology Partners
LTE radio and patent pending antennae
technology from Alcatel-Lucent support new advances in in-vehicle
connectivity. The company's multi-screen video solution provides
streaming video applications to four screens simultaneously. The LTE
Connected Car system architecture puts the intelligence and computing
capability in the network. Alcatel-Lucent’s historic Bell Labs invented
key standards for MiMo and OFDM which support today’s smart antennae
and emerging LTE networks.
QNX Software Systems provided the software
foundation for the LTE Connected Car including the operating system,
touchscreen user interfaces, media players for YouTube and Pandora,
navigation system, Bluetooth connectivity, multimedia playback,
handsfree integration, games, app store, and virtual mechanic. All
components are based on the QNX CAR application platform.
Media and Content Partners
Fanbase from Atlantic Records allows music fans
to directly connect to their favorite artists, streamed into the LTE
Connected Car. Users can chat and download the latest music, news,
photos and videos from the comfort of the backseat.
chumby offers more than 1,500 applications,
ranging from news and entertainment to social networks, videos, music,
sports and more from high profile media partners. chumby also offers
user generated content, thousands of Internet radio stations, and the
ability to share photos, e-cards and more with family and friends.
The Kids VoD Service (on-demand kids’ content)
from Kabillion provides high quality entertainment for young passengers
in the LTE Connected Car. Kabillion’s online entertainment portal also
allows kids to play games and create their own personal avatars.
