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Apple makes SaaS play with iCloud

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8th Jun 2011
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Did Apple invent the Cloud yet?” quipped one analyst after Apple announced its iCloud initiative. Stuart Lauchlan looks at the portents for the latest attempt at world domination from Steve Jobs & Co.

Now that Apple has decided to launch itself into the fast-growing Cloud market, mainstream media outlets such as the Daily Mail have been dishing up snazzy little diagrams to explain what the Cloud is.

Apple’s variant, iCloud,  will be bundled for free with Apple’s next iOS operating system release in the autumn. The iCloud package will include 5GB of free storage for users’ files, plus unlimited room for purchased apps and books.

Living up to his visionary mystique, Apple CEO Steve Jobs told the audience at San Francisco’s Moscone Centre on Monday evening that iCloud represented a redefinition of Cloud computing.

“Now, some people think the Cloud is just a hard disk in the sky. We think it’s way more than that,” he said.

“We're going to move the digital hub, the centre of your digital life, into the Cloud. Everything happens automatically. There's nothing new to learn – it just all works.”

For music lovers, the most interesting element of the iCloud launch announcement was a $24.99 music management facility called iTunes Match, which will save users the hassle of song-by-song uploads. Instead iTunes Match will locate online equivalents of tracks stored on any of the Apple devices - including iPods, iPads, iPhones and Macs.

On stage at the Moscone Center, an Apple executive took a photo with his iPhone which uploaded it into iCloud where it was instantly downloaded into iPhoto before he had time to pick up his iPad. For business users, the executive showed how a presentation edited using his iPhone immediately synched with the copy on his iPad.

It all sounds and looks great - as Apple product presentations usually do. But doubts are already being voiced from those who think Cloud services will need to extend beyond Apple devices. Google Apps and DropBox, for example, will continue to cater for those who operate in heterogeneous technology environments.

Nevertheless UK analyst Richard Holway of TechMarketView predicted that iCloud could be the service to convince more people to go the “All Apple” route.

With Apple continuing to increase its share of the hardware market, “This is yet another reason to buy a MacBook rather than a Dell. An iPhone rather than an Android. An iPad rather than all those other ‘me-too’ tablets,” Holway said.

Apple also reckons it has sounded the death knell of the PC, he continued. “For 30 years, almost every user has had one central PC from which an increasing array of devices are synced. iCloud makes that redundant. Now you don’t need a PC at all. Apple has even dubbed it ‘PC Free’ – all you need is a WiFi network and iCloud.  If I was Microsoft I would have gone from concern to downright despair.”

For the emerging Cloud software industry, Apple’s iCloud will certainly be a game-changer. But the big question will be whether this game will go any further than being able to listen to Robbie Williams’s ‘Angels’ in the Cloud.

Apple has been down this road before, with the paid-for Apple's MobileMe service. Even though Jobs admitted it wasn’t Apple’s finest hour, MobileMe still managed to attract 3m users - and taught the company a few lessons that have gone into the iCloud development project.

When Jobs was challenged on the extent of his ambitions for Apple’s Cloud project, he replied quietly, “If you don't think we're serious about this, you're wrong.”

Replies (10)

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By ERP_Consultant_Dalbir
08th Jun 2011 19:49

Cloud computing

With the advent of official release of Microsoft's Cloud version of Office, Office 365 on 28th June 2011

Is this the beginning of the demise of hard drives in personal computers?

Exciting times ahead for fellow advocates of the cloud.

Dalbir 

 

 

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Gary Turner
By garyturner
08th Jun 2011 20:23

More than meets the eye

About the most prescient commentary I've heard this week says that this is Apple making a fundamental change in focus and opening a new, underserved frontier. They were arguably 4-5 years ahead of the competition with the launch of the iPhone in 2007, and now just as everyone's followed, replicated and caught up with them, they're off into a different sphere, taking their market assets with them to challenge the competition to stop, re-assess, react and try to catch-up again, and at the same time Apple is strengthening and defending their 2007-2011 market position by surrounding it with more valuable services.

If you have a spare hour, the full programme is well worth a listen http://5by5.tv/criticalpath/1.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero UK
@garyturner

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By User deleted
09th Jun 2011 08:49

The power of Jobs hype .....

Apple's fourth (maybe more?) attempt to create a viable cloud computing service. Previous attempts have included 

iTools in 2000 - http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2000/jan/05netstrategy.html.Mac in 2002MobileMe in 2008 - http://www.apple.com/uk/mobileme/

We all know that Jobs only has to utter something for the press to get carried away in 'fanboy' mode and whilst his devices are very good they are not the 'be all & end all' of computing

Apple are once again trying to catch up with Google (in this area) and their current nth... attempt may have eventually done this; nevertheless a number of others have not needed to make umpteen attempts to achieve their goal
 

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
09th Jun 2011 13:59

From a pre-owner convert

I think all this has arisen because I have just ordered my first ever Mac!

Two weeks ago I knew next to nothing about Macs or Apple, thinking that they were designed for the creative, fluffy types and not hard nosed number-crunchers.  I was with a "creative" client discussing numbers etc and she was using her MacBook and it suddenly dawned on me that it was actually a "real" computer and might even be "realer" than my Dell. 

It was when she said that she converted from PC to Mac a year ago and would never go back that I started researching.  My Saint Paul on the road to Croydon moment came when I put all this all together with the fact that all my "stuff" is now hosted.  My MacBook Air is on it's way.

The Apple hype does worry me, especially with a kid in the far east selling a kidney to get an iPad and the guy in the Apple Store saying that half the people that buy iPads, then return to the store a week later, haven't much of an idea what they "needed" them for in the first place, ie they are a fashion item. 

I also have to mention the other story from the far east of workers making these things being forced to sign non suicide agreements.

Will I be back here in a month or two to eat my words?

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By KH
09th Jun 2011 14:29

maybe the lightest, but not the best

I don't blame you going down the Apple route .... all you got to do is look on Amazon at other purchasers' reviews, especially those migrating from Windows. However, you have sacrificed power for weight with the MacBook Air .... and I hope that sacrifice doesn't come back to bite you. Personally I'd have gone for the Apple Macbook Pro 17inch, funds allowing, otherwise the 15 inch version of that. As it is I'm office-based, so use a iMac, and it's fantastic. I actually enjoy working! Help, I'm  an accountant, and look what I just said?!?!-- KH

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Teignmouth
By Paul Scholes
09th Jun 2011 15:12

Thanks KH

Didn't mention that this is for me in out&about mode. Will keep work horses @ home & office, with current Dell laptop (17") replacing 8 year old PC, but as I'm spending more time at clisnts' and doing more train travel these days, and plan even more next year, I needed something lean & handy (& sexy).....did I really say that?

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Gary Turner
By garyturner
09th Jun 2011 15:34

Hype?

@JC I get that the buzz can be a little overwhelming at times, but is it really fair to say that a business that was weeks away from going under in 1997 and is now the largest technology company in the world across several measures has gotten there on somehow illegitimately on hype?

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero UK
@garyturner

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By User deleted
10th Jun 2011 08:08

Buzz - but not for re-hash of existing ideas ...

@garyturner

There is definitely a buzz from new ideas, innovations etc. such as the concept of today’s Cloud/SaaS/ASP when it was introduced over a decade ago.

Unfortunately, after a number of 'mis-hits', a great fanfare over ideas that are not original and have been around for some time is simply not exiting and can surely only be classed as 'hype' - ([sic] Excessive publicity and the ensuing commotion, Exaggerated or extravagant claims made especially in advertising or promotional material, An advertising or promotional ploy)

Yes Apple did nearly call it a day a while ago but from memory that because Jobs was not on board (fired April 1985 in a ill advised episode) and Sculley subsequently sent the company into a nose dive. Once Jobs had secured the backing of Microsoft to the tune of $150 million in 1997 Apple was back in the game

 

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Gary Turner
By garyturner
10th Jun 2011 15:07

I get that Apple's not everyone's cup of tea.

But what's really notable in all this is the fact that in order to deliver these new iCloud services (whether you think that's an old idea or not), then the role of the personal computer as the central, all important, cannot live without, digital hub is being demoted; possibly completely eliminated - challenging notion that the principal port of entry for any computing experience is a box at your desk with a hard disk and a bunch of USB ports with which to connect up other devices and services.

Overall iCloud is an natural iteration as an idea and not one that Apple can stake a claim to inventing (I might have a tongue in cheek go at that myself), but they're one of the first to have the momentum, market share and capital to throw at it to stand a chance of making progress.

The fact iCloud is an internet service is not the pertinent point for me. It's what it means from a device perspective.

Gary Turner
Managing Director, Xero UK
@garyturner

 

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By User deleted
12th Jun 2011 11:57

Good for critical mass - but wanting in other areas ....

Yes Apple may bring critical mass to drive things forward which is a good thing, but as already pointed out device independance already exists with products such as Google Apps, Dropbox and for Apple to hype it as their own with the comment '.. iCloud represented a redefinition of Cloud computing..' is frankly ridiculous

http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-windows-live-vs-apple-icloud/ -

Quote:

'..
Windows Live = Cloud Computing & Syncing
iCloud = Cloud Syncing

Big difference
..'

Whilst the likes of iTunes, Social Media, Kindle etc. have no need of a computer, nevertheless, there are certain applications that are simply not web based and unlikely to be in the foreseable future, which need an underlying computer. This alone shows up the crass statement '.. Apple has even dubbed it ‘PC Free’ – all you need is a WiFi network and iCloud ..' for what it is - nothing but a 'fanboy' comment that belies reality

Quite apart from the concerns

Apple isn't offering a service level agreement, or SLA, that guarantees iCloud uptime or quality of servicePirated MP3 loaded to iCloud and Apples abrogation of responsibility claiming to only be the provider and therefore not responsible

Which are interesting coming from a company which is so hot on their own proprietary products 

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