Steve Jobs, the Apple CEO, introduced the company’s newest product, iCloud, to capitalize on the latest trend in cloud computing. iCloud is a music store which stores music and wirelessly synchronizes other devices. iCloud will allow users to break away from their PC hard drives and move into a special music vault created by Apple. Apple unveiled this latest project calling it the biggest music seller, where users can access their existing music store through iCloud for $25 a year. Jobs introduced iCloud by saying a user should be able to buy a song and move it into all their other devices with convenience.
So far Apple iOS products have played a dominant role in the smartphone industry, ahead of Google’s Android. Apple is hoping unlock icloud will play a similar role in helping cement its dominance over competitors such as Amazon and Google. Forrester Research analyst, Frank Gillett, says that iCloud will ensure users have access to their content on various Apple devices, which means that fewer users will be defecting to rival companies. Gillett also said that in this new day and age, people have no time to wonder what each gadget contains. As users organize their content around Apple’s gadget and create a personal ecosystem, it will become difficult to move away to another service.
The Apple conference marked the second public appearance made by Steve Jobs in 2011. Steve Jobs attended the conference from his medical absence and is known to be coping with a rare form of cancer which struck him in 2004. Jobs, however, still remains actively involved in the entire decision making at Apple. iTunes Match is the latest music feature from Apple, which will scan the users library for every song and match it on iCloud. This means users don’t have to waste their time uploading song by song to iCloud.
iCloud will feature as a free download this fall. Apple will release the new iOS operating system which will include five free gigabytes of storage for files, books, purchased applications and even recent photos. iOS will run on the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch, where the user wouldn’t be required to plug in the devices. All files and applications will be synchronized wirelessly.
Apple’s software also contains other new features. There is a notification system where users will be alerted each time they receive a text message and other updates from the social media network such as Facebook. This is also convenient to users who like to look up web articles and store them for later reading. Meanwhile, a new Twitter partnership will allow users to post their photos and access services on social networking sites. While Mr. Jobs was unveiling iCloud in San Francisco, executives from Microsoft Corp were presenting their new games in Los Angeles.
What is encouraging about Apple’s newest service is that when consumers purchase one product of Apple they are fortunate to end up getting several others as well. The $25 annual fee will be split between Apple and the record companies, with Apple receiving 30% and music companies receiving 70%.