Comments on: Media store wars: iTunes vs Amazon vs Google Play

By: hollisss

hollisss — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 02:37:41 +0000

I have an iPad and want to play my iTunes music on it, well it only synced what I purchased from their store of course. So now I have to get a normal mp3 player and spend more money. Plus, the app for iTunes, or whatever it is, sucks on the iPad. I really hate that thing. Biggest regret ever.

By: Eric DiChiara

Eric DiChiara — Mon, 20 Aug 2012 17:03:46 +0000

What about the Google Play purchases or rentals? Are those all in HD? I prefer HD over SD any day of the week… so if they’re not then that would be a deal breaker for me.

By: Peter Deep

Peter Deep — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 22:49:33 +0000

Okay Nadav, I’m not an idiot. I was using a computer, not an Android device. I have Google Apps for Domains which handles all my email, drive, calendar, etc. I use a Mac. Play is not – NOT – in the black bar at the top of any of these pages, nor is it listed in the “More” drop down where you can find Translate, Reader, etc. So no, it’s not there, in the most obvious place it should be, which is what I based my statement on. The only way I could find it was to do a Google search, like you said, but, you know what? You have to LEAVE the Google Apps pages or open a new Google window to actually do a Google web search, you can’t do it from inside of any of the Google Apps for domains pages. If that’s not convoluted, I don’t know what is. That is my opinion and I am sticking with it. Please stop arguing with me. Thank you.

By: Nadav

Nadav — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 16:00:59 +0000

Reply to Peter (why can’t I reply directly to him?) –
Options to find Google Play:
1. There’s a nice, obvious app for it on almost every Android device.
2. Google search for it (“Google Play”). I assure you it’s the top result.
3. Google search for “Android”, it’s the third result for me. First result if you search “Android market”.
4. There’s a link to it on the top black bar in most Google sites (Gmail, search, etc.). I see it 5th from the left.
5. It’s address is consistent with all Google services: .google.com
In this case, play.google.com

Can they really make it any EASIER to find?

By: Peter Deep

Peter Deep — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 13:31:00 +0000

In reply to Nadav, I was all over the pages for my Google Mail, Google Docs (Drive) and Google Voice. If there’s a link or an ad or some other indicator on any of those to go to Google Play, then I’m just not seeing it. I saw links to just about every other Google service there, but not Play. That’s why I said what I said.

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:50:34 +0000

Nadav, appreciate the feedback. There’s a number of ways to make this type of comparison and I didn’t choose this method to ensure that Apple “wins”. As I noted in the article, I used the iTunes App Store as a baseline for comparison here because Apple was the first to truly build it outs digital storefront while others have played catch up. We can debate if iTunes is the “gold standard” here or not, but I had to have a starting point and way to keep this simple but telling of the current digital storefronts; particular now that Google is making a bigger push here. Thanks for the comment; going forward I’ll consider a different way to make these types of comparisons.

By: Kevin C. Tofel

Kevin C. Tofel — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 12:47:37 +0000

Michael, thanks for catching that! I was offline due to some appointments after this story went live, so I couldn’t correct until just now. I’ve updated the table and noted my inadvertent mistake in a short explanation. Thanks again!

By: Nadav

Nadav — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:09:25 +0000

“If I could figure out how to get to Google Play – they don’t make it easy, do they”

That must be a first. Can’t figure out if you’re trolling or just not very smart.

By: Nadav

Nadav — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 10:03:29 +0000

You seem to have misunderstood my suggestion. By my logic, if you want to do a fair comparison between services, you give them the same treatment. Simple as that. I have no idea why you brought Netflix into it.
If there are a lot fewer shows, it would become very apparent in my comparison as well. Try re-reading it.

By: Peter Deep

Peter Deep — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:24:31 +0000

Likewise, I only spend $1.99 for the TV shows on iTunes, not $2.99. I buy the SD version because, to be totally honest, even with my lovely Hitachi plasma I cannot really tell the difference. The quality of the SD version on iTunes is wonderful and good enough for me. It makes a big difference in the price when purchasing whole seasons. And the download time too.