Amagoo? Goomazon?
Google's (NASDAQ:GOOG) branded handset is still several weeks away from hitting the market, but VentureBeat reports that an Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) digital-music and video-store app has been spotted on a phone released early.
The move makes perfect sense. If Google wants to compete against Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPhone in the smartphone market, the last thing it needs is to promote iTunes.
It doesn't want to repeat Research In Motion's (NASDAQ:RIMM) mistake. RIM wanted to take the iPhone head-on -- and gain some clout outside the boardroom -- by offering iTunes compatibility on its new BlackBerry line, but Google clearly looks at the situation another way: Why risk sending people over to Apple for their digital-music purchases?
Google is doing it right by going with Amazon, even if it means alienating fans of the market leader in digital music. Apple and Google were going to collide eventually, so the clash may as well start now.
The relationship between Google and Amazon should be able to evolve. It certainly doesn't have to end with digital media downloads. How cool would it be to have an Amazon e-commerce app, with which someone who's comparison-shopping can tap into Amazon's storefront and make a physical purchase? If TiVo (NASDAQ:TIVO) owners can now go shopping on Amazon from the comfort of their sofas, why not through Google's handset?
The digital-music market is intensifying. Now that Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) is buying music-subscription service Napster (NASDAQ:NAPS), Amazon is facing a bricks-and-mortar giant that wants to play on both battlefields.
So if Google has to fight Apple, and Amazon is set to duke it out with Best Buy, they may as well battle the enemies together.
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