Google introduces Google Play, the new version of the Android Market

Google introduces Google Play, the new version of the Android Market

We've seen the Android Market undergo multiple facelifts and gain new offerings since its inception, but today the Market is going to see possibly its biggest change yet. Google today introduced Google Play, which is the new brand that's taking the place of the Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore.

Like the Android Market before it, Google Play will offer Android apps as well as music, movies and books. Google also notes that the music, books and movies apps will be rebranded as Google Play Music, Google Play Books and Google Play Movies. Devices running Android 2.2 or something newer can expect to see their Market app d automatically sometime in the coming days.

To celebrate the big change, Google has announced that it'll be offering a special discount on one book, album, video rental and Android app each day for the next week. The first batch of discounted items in the "7 Days to Play" sale includes the album Now That's What I Call Music 41, the game Where's My Water, the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and the movie Puncture for 25 cents each.

Other items in each category will see slightly less drastic discounts as well, with some albums priced at $3.99 apiece, books from $2.99, movies for 99 cents and apps from 49 cents.

Today's move comes as a bit of a surprise since we've gotten so used to the Android Market over the years, but it looks like Google decided that it wanted to unite the Market, Google Music, and its books and movies stores under the same Google Play brand. As you can see in the promotional video for Play below,

Google also seems to be pushing the cloud as a big component of Play, touting features like the fact that users can buy an item (app, song, etc.) and have it appear on their devices automatically. What do you all make of the Google Play rebranding?

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