Cloud Computing – “Whats the Buzz? - Ask, Find, Discuss about ...

[ THE G‐GAME ]Parampreet SalujaHealthy competition is always valued, butwhen this competition becomes aggressive itturns into a war. I am not talking about thewar with sword and spears but this is the warof brains, the battle of the two biggest techgiants‐ Apple and Google.It all started when Google introduced its G‐Phone in the market following Apple’s successwith its iPhone. This was enough tobeard the lion in his own den and soApple came up with newer versions ofiPhone and an enhanced version of itssoftware iTunes. To give it a tough fightcame in Android, an open source OS anda very powerful in its kind, by Google.Therefore, the war became official andthe saga of the tech giants started.Adding fuel to the fire, Google isbelieved to be coming up with its ownmusic service, ‘GOOGLE AUDIO’, whichwould pose a tough contender to thebiggest music service provider ‘iTunes’.Google’s plans do appear quite advancedand such a product is believed to becoming soon. Rumors about Google gettinginto the music business are getting stronger bythe day. Google itself hinted at a music storeand an associated service for Android and a‘Google music’ logo was found on Googleservers. Now various sources from the musicindustry claim (Lala, iLike, Pandora, imeem)that this service would be launching as early asthis fall. CNET has reported that several peoplehave confirmed that this service will belaunched in this US holiday season [1]. Also,according to the Android product manager,Mr. Gaurav Jain, in one of his interview on 2ndJuly, 2010 with an Israeli financial newspaper,Calcalist, he testified/hinted that this servicewould be launched with the Android 3.0[2].The difference between Apple’s iTunes andthe yet to come Google‐Audio is that ofstreaming. Google claims that the product willhave the capability of providing the users withdownloading and streaming services;while iTunes currently offers onlydownloading services. Initially, the G‐Audio was thought of being launched forAndroid users alone, but now it will befor all the users. For the Android usersthis service will be based on the cloudcomputing service i.e. the android userswill be able to download the data ontheir mobile phone directly throughwireless services.Google has already signaled that itwishes to give phone users equippedwith Google's Android operating systema better music offering. At Google's I/Oconference in May, the searchengine offered attendees a demonstration of aWeb‐based iTunes competitor.Google’s CEO, Mr. Eric Schmidt, already boastsgreat success in the industry with YouTube.Before three of the four top labels launched &took control of their videos YouTube was byfar the Web's most successful streaming musicservice. Zahavah Levine, YouTube's generalcounsel, who previously worked withRealNetworks' Rhapsody music subscriptionservice, has a prominent role in helping todevelop Google's new music store, the sources29