Amazon launches Cloud Drive: An easy to use tablet play that takes AWS consumer

Amazon on Tuesday launched cloud Drive and Cloud Player for Web and Android---three services that allow you to store music in a repository and play on the Web and smartphones.

Among the key points:

• You can upload your library.
• Anyone that bought an Amazon MP3 can get 20GB for free.
• Mac and PC compatible.
• On Android, the Cloud Player is an update to the Amazon MP3 app.
• Everyone starts with 5GB of Cloud Drive storage.
• Cloud Drive uses Amazon Web Services S3.
• Plans start at 20GB for $20 a year and basically run $1 a year per GB.

With the move Amazon gets the jump on other services that are likely from Apple and Google.

Here are three thoughts on the move:

• First, Cloud Drive is a big piece of Amazon's tablet ambitions. The service will be critical to uploading content for any tablet that Amazon launches. And Amazon's Android market rides shotgun.
• If Amazon doesn't launch a tablet it just put itself at the center of the Android ecosystem.
• Cloud Drive is about music today, but it's essentially a cloud service for other things like documents and photos.

And finally, Cloud Drive is very easy to use. It's essentially the consumerization of Amazon Web Services.