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Google overhauls smartphone Android Market

Google has revamped its Android Market for smartphones with a brand new look as well as some more products for purchase.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor

Google has revamped its Android Market for smartphones with a brand new look as well as some more products for purchase.

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(Credit: Google)

The Android Developers Blog points out that this new interface could work better for both customers and developers. The new UI is intended to be more engaging, as it showcases top apps and games while providing a quicker path to purchasing products. For developers, this ideally means that there are more opportunities for apps to get picked up and downloaded.

Some of the new features include more lists (ie, Top Paid, Top Free, Top Grossing, etc) that are country-specific, and individual app product pages have been rearranged to streamline the buying process.

Aside from the new user interface, Android users might be more interested to learn that they can now purchase books, which will be linked to their Google accounts like on the iriver Story HD, as well as rent movies, which start at US$1.99.

Otherwise, it's likely to be business as usual. Even as nice as the new design might be, it might be a while before Google can catch up to the record 15 billion downloads secured by Apple's App Store.

Available for smartphones running at least Android 2.2 (Froyo) and higher, the new version of Android Market will be rolling out worldwide in the coming weeks.

Via ZDNet US

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