Google continues to expand it music services with a new entertainment system that streams music wirelessly throughout the home and would be marketed under the company’s own brand.

Photo: Google logo

This is a new move for Google that would design and market consumer electronic devices under its name for the first time. Previously, the company was developing the Android operating system. The new system will also be Android-based.

Though Google’s purchase of device maker Motorola is pending, the tech giant aims to compete with rival Apple, which controls both the software and hardware process.

According to The WSJ, Google’s entertainment device, in development for several years, is expected to be unveiled later this year. Retailers to sell the device are unknown yet. The device would stream music from Google’s online music-storage service and pipe it wirelessly to Google-designed speakers or other web-connected devices in people’s homes. Consumers would operate the Google system using a smartphone or tablet, said people familiar with the matter.

Last year, the company rolled out Google TV, which lets people use their TVs to browse the web for video content, but the technology turned out to be not very popular. The new entertainment system would, probably, stream other forms of digital media such as video.

Currently, Android is the No.1 operating system in smartphones in the US. Obviously, it’s due to partnerships between Google and device makers that helped to extend its web-search engine and other applications into mobile devices.

Google doesn’t have any profit from selling of partner companies devices, so with its own device Google will be able to generate revenue.

Google may open its first stand- alone retail store at its European headquarters in Dublin, says Bloomberg. Google’s Irish unit said in a local planning application that The Google Store would be located in Dublin’s Montevetro office block and sell unspecified “Google merchandise.” The shop would feature about 123 square meters (1,323 square feet) of space with an added mezzanine floor extension.