Hands-on with the new Android Market

Google just rolled out a revamped Android Market that includes a radical redesign and gives mobile users access to books and movies in the same store and we decided to point our camera at it to show you what to expect. This will slowly roll out over the next month or so but there are other ways to get it immediately.

The first thing you notice about the new Android Market is the fresh, new user interface which puts more of an emphasis on promoting apps. For example, at the top of the screen is a promotion for a single app instead of the carousel of the previous version. That’s going to be a highly coveted spot because I’m sure that the app in that position will be receiving a lot of downloads.

If you think it looks a little like Windows Phone 7, I couldn’t blame you, as it has a similar high-glossy magazine look and feel. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. Once you dive into the Apps category, you can swipe left and right to bring up familiar sorting methods like “Top free” or “Top paid,” as well as new ones like trending.

These were improvements that Google showed off earlier and I’m particularly stoked that apps can be up to 4 GB now. That new limit in the redesigned Android Market should be helpful for games and Google is definitely emphasizing these by giving games its own tab directly under the Apps tab. Mobile gaming is taking off, so hopefully this helps Android gamers get some better things to play.

Beneath the Apps and Games tabs is the Books and Movies tab and these will let you purchase e-books or rent movies on the go. We’ve covered how easy it is to rent movies on the go and it will be interesting to see how many people take advantage of this surface on the go.