Amazon unveils new online service

BANGALORE, INDIA: Amazon.com Inc said on Tuesday said it has unveiled an online service that would enable its customers to securely store and access music through their smartphones and computers.

Amazon's move is a further sign of intensifying competition among top-notch technology firms to deliver entertainment content over the Internet.

Amazon Cloud Service enables customers to securely store music on the company's web servers instead of local hard drives -- a type of technology generically known as "cloud computing."

Amazon said the new service would allow customers to play music on any Android, Windows and Apple devices.

The company said customers would initially be provided with 5 GB of free storage, which can eventually be upgraded to 20 GB with the purchase of any MP3 album.