Over the past decade iTunes has become the dominant force when it comes to music downloads. Almost every American teen has an iPod, and a good chunk have iPhones. Although more people purchase iPhones every year, Android handsets are purchased at an even higher rate. Google’s market base is huge!

Today was Google’s big event – Google IO. It was held in the same venue that Apple normally uses for its own grand scale unveilings. Only difference being, Google gave away free Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices to everyone that was there, that’s around 5,500 people. The big news, apart from Android 3.1 “Ice Cream Sandwich”, was the launch of a new streaming service, Google Music.

With Google Music you can upload all your currently owned music to the cloud, as well as purchase new albums, songs etc. There’s a desktop client which allows you to access your content from your Mac/PC, as well as your Android tablet/handset. It even offers a similar service to iTunes’ Genius music finder. Google’s, apparently, is better – according to Google. Currently, the service is in Beta mode, and by invitation only, but it’s going public soon.

Here’s the deal though – Amazon launched a Cloud Player for Android that also works on iOS. Google’s is only compatible with Android devices. Will this mean that those wanting to use it will ditch their iPods in favour of the Galaxy Player multimedia devices? Or, will no one bother, instead preferring to sync their Android devices with iTunes as they do currently? I’d be signing up right away if Google’s Music service was compatible with iOS, it’d mean if I fancied going back to the green robot switching would be hassle free. One thing’s for sure – with so many people owning Google-powered handsets, it’s not going to take long for this service to become popular. It also means that Apple, surely, has to launch its iCloud service this year.

Via: IntoMobile