by Mark Taoilinn
In its press release earlier this week Apple did something completely out of character – they preannounced a new product. Apple’s new service iCloud is to be launched by Steve Jobs at Apple’s Worldwide Developers’ Coneference (WWDC) this Monday, sparking rumour, speculation and excitement this week about the computer giant might pull out of the bag. It’s also refueled the debate about cloud computing in general and shone a light on this year’s biggest new trend.
It can be argued that iCloud is perhaps Apple’s work kept secret. Rumours about a new Apple cloud service, which have been circulating for quite some time, were driven to fever pitch at the beginning of April when Apple acquired the domain name iCloud.com from Swedish cloud services provider Xcerion for $4.5Million. Ad that to the $1Billion data centre that Apple are building in North Carolina and you get a market poised and waiting for a ‘surprise’ Apple announcement about their slant on this year’s hottest new IT craze. But what is the iCloud, and exactly what services will it offer. Well, in Apple’s typically secretive style, we don’t know! But that doesn’t stop everyone guessing. We pundits have it that the iCloud service will be Apple’s new music offering to rival the music lockers available from Amazon and Google. The Wall Street Journal has confirmed that Apple has signed deals with major studios and record labels to allow Apple users stream content directly from the cloud. The clever bit, we expect, is that Apple may scan your computer to ascertain what music you currently own and then make those titles available to you to stream 24/7 to any apple device via the iCloud, saving users the messy and time-consuming task of selecting music and uploading it to their phone or device. Clever eh!
