Android Needs a Media Management Makeover

CNET posted an article today citing Apple's iTunes as Android's the biggest hurdle. While Android's current customer base is undeniably more technologically savvy than the average iPod (or dare I say iPhone user), the ability to instantly access millions of songs, TV shows and movies is something that will be hard for most users to pass up. While we wait for Spotify to shake up the mobile music market, something has to be done on the Android platform to compete.

As it stands currently, iTunes provides users with a universal solution for apps, music, video and podcast management (and more, but, for the sake of this post, let's take care of these first).

Desktop Management

Since the introduction of original iPod, users have been managing their music with iTunes. As an app, it's (intentionally) limited, but it functions well enough that users don't really have to think about their music as files and folders, but as songs and albums. Personally, I keep all of my music in a centralized location, so I prefer to be able to drop songs onto a folder on a microSD card and be on my way. I am, however, not a typical user and many have grown accustom to purchasing music from iTunes, syncing their iPod or iPhone and having the music just work.

I've been hoping for a while that Amazon would launch an application to compete directly with iTunes, but so far the best we have is their download manager that adds songs to iTunes when they're done downloading. Effective, but not ideal.

Recently DVD Jon's doubleTwist launched a promising desktop app that will not only sync your tunes with your device (iPhone not yet supported), but it also allows you to browse the Amazon store from within the app and purchase songs. It will also convert videos and allow you to make smart playlists similar to Microsoft's Zune software, but not as advanced as iTunes' Genius, yet. It would be interesting to see Pandora license their music data for such an application, but that's just a pipe dream at the moment.

Download On The Go

Top 100 Albums

Another area where iTunes shines is on the actual device, itself. If you want to grab a song on the go, you're able to find and purchase. Android users have also had this ability using Amazon's MP3 app since the launch of the T-Mobile G1 in late 2008. The app allows you to search for specific files and browse the top 100 albums and tracks. It's a great first draft, however, over a year later, it's still all we have. Every time I visit Amazon.com on my laptop, I'm greeted with a million suggested products based on my previous shopping history. With all of this information at their disposal, one would think Amazon might try to suggest albums from within their app.

Podcast Management

Both iTunes' desktop app and mobile app allow you to browse and download podcasts from the iTunes directory. Unfortunately on Android this requires yet another application. DoggCatcher is currently the most advanced option allowing OPML import and even video support. Google's Listen app is also popular, but only supports audio.

Buying TV Episodes

Another option available to iTunes users is the ability to buy TV episodes on the go. Unfortunately, this isn't yet an option on Android. As far as I know, the only way to get TV shows onto the device is to download from a torrent (which we do condone) and convert manually or via doubleTwist.

Putting It All Together

As you can see, it's possible to do almost the exact same tasks on Android as iPhone, but the package isn't nearly as tightly integrated into the OS or to each other. DoubleTwist shows the most promise, but it's not clear if they wish to be the entire solution just yet.