Apple on Monday took on Google and Amazon in the consumer cloud space with the launch of iCloud, a range of new Web-based services that will allow users to store and access their data and content – including iTunes music – via any Apple device.
Addressing the audience at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference in San Francisco, chief executive Steve Jobs said that iCloud will launch immediately as a beta version for developers, and will not cost anything for end users.
"iCloud stores your content in the cloud and wirelessly pushes it to all your devices," said Jobs, in a report by Engadget. "It automatically uploads it, stores it, and pushes it."
On iTunes, Jobs commented that "now, when I buy a song on one of my devices it automatically downloads to all of my devices without having to sync or do anything at all."
"We're making it free, and we're very excited about it," he added.
The service automatically synchronises information stored in the calendar and contacts book between devices, and when a consumer buys a new piece of Apple hardware, iCloud can also push all the user's stored data to that new device at the touch of a button. Apple is also opening up iCloud APIs to third-party developers to enable them to store application information in the cloud as well.
iCloud raises the stakes in Apple's race with Google and Amazon, which have both recently launched their own cloud services. Amazon's Cloud Player and Cloud Drive unveiled in March enables subscribers to upload their music and play it back on a PC or Android device, while Google Music allows users to store songs in online libraries and stream them to multiple devices.
However, unlike its rivals, iCloud does not require users to upload their songs to the Internet, and instead for $24.99 per year matches their existing collection with the iTunes store.
"Apple has held its nerve, taking its time to create a cloud-based media streaming proposition, dubbed iCloud, in the face of rival launches from both Amazon and Google," said Mark Little, principal analyst at Ovum, in a research note.
"Such nerve may well have stood
Apple in good stead, allowing licensing deals to be inked and enabling existing iTunes collections to be streamed from the cloud to any Apple device without the need for laborious uploading," he said.
As well as iCloud, Apple also unveiled new versions of its iOS mobile device platform, iOS 5, and OSX Lion – which powers its laptops and desktop computers.
Among the myriad new features, iOS 5 includes a new, closely-integrated Twitter application, a new mobile version of Apple's Safari Web browser, and a new instant messaging application that works across all iOS devices.
It also includes a location-based reminder application that enables users to set up their own geofences that will trigger alerts. Ovum said that Apple's mobile platform has been in need of a refresh.
"Since the last update of iOS, the new Windows Phone platform has entered the market," said Ovum Analyst
Nick Dillion, in a research note. "While it has yet to enjoy the same commercial success of iOS, the dramatic redesign of Microsoft's mobile platform has made Apple's look distinctly old fashioned in some areas."
Meanwhile OSX Lion is the first Apple operating system that will be made available exclusively on the Mac App Store. Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing said it will cost just $29.99 to download the 4-gigabyte file, which can then be installed on any of the user's registered Macs.
By Nick Wood, Total Telecom
Monday 06 June 2011
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