Amazon announced a new Cloud Player app for Apple’s iPad today, further spreading the reach of its cloud-based music service. But the announcement for this app includes an explicit mention of an Amazon strategy I previously revealed, suggesting more to come.
As for the Cloud Player app itself, it’s exactly what you think it is: Amazon already offered a version of the app for iPhone and iPod touch, so the new iPad version is tailored for Apple’s bigger iPad mini and iPad devices. Amazon also makes a version of this app available on Android devices as well, including its own Kindle Fire HD devices.
What Amazon doesn’t currently provide is native Cloud Player apps for Windows 8/RT, a desktop application for Windows 7/8, or a mobile app for Windows Phone. As a user of these systems, and of Cloud Player, I’ve been hoping to see Amazon step up to the plate. (Amazon provides a web-based interface to Cloud Player for PCs, but it requires you to be online to use. I’ve written the first draft of a mini-book about this solution.)
But there’s a hint in today’s announcement that we could soon see more Cloud Player apps for other platforms. As I noted in Amazon Spreads Its Ecosystem, Amazon is the only major digital media ecosystem provider—the others being Apple, Google, and Microsoft—that can afford to be truly device agnostic. That is, of these companies, only Amazon can still win when you buy some other company’s hardware devices. So it makes sense that Amazon would make Cloud Player apps for other platforms.
The hint’s at the end of this quote.
“We introduced our Cloud Player app for iPhone and iPod touch last summer and it’s been incredibly popular with our customers so we’ve now expanded it to iPad,” said Steve Boom, Vice President of Digital Music for Amazon. “Our goal is to make Cloud Player the most widely compatible cloud playback solution available, giving our customers the ability to buy their music once and enjoy it everywhere.”
Now, you might argue that the web-based Cloud Player solution already meets this need on Windows. But the point of the mobile apps is that they offer offline capabilities too: You can download music to the device and play it when you’re in a plane or other offline situation.
And besides, the new slogan for Cloud Player says it all: Your music, everywhere.
They’re getting there. In the last three months alone, Amazon has shipped Cloud Player apps for iPhone and iPod touch, Samsung Smart TVs, Roku Streaming Players, Ford SYNC-equipped vehicles, and now iPad.
Windows 8? Windows Phone? Make it so, Amazon.
