The full ramifications of today’s Apple WWDC event announcements remain to be seen, but one thing is clear: the “era of the cloud” is here to stay. Apple is making huge efforts in replicating some of the core functionalities that companies like Google or Amazon have been offering with their cloud-based services. In some areas Apple seems to be taking the lead position. It is particularly their emphasis on the ease of use and integration of data and services that go seamlessly across devices that make cloud approach finally go mainstream. Already, email solutions like Google’s Gmail, Calendar, plus their integration of the online contact database with the Android devices makes it easy to restore all necessary daily information to a new device by just entering one’s Google account details. Now, Apple promises to deliver your contacts, photos, documents, applications, music — basically your entire digital life seamlessly synced to all Apple/iOS devices, so they are available anywhere you go, regardless what was the last device you used to access them. With the Mac OS X integrating even tighter with iOS, the boundary lines between device categories are quickly melting, which is a very welcome point in digital ecosystem evolution, if true.
Here are some links to videos and more information:
- iOS5 video: http://www.apple.com/ios/ios5/gallery.html#video-ios
- Apple Keynote recording: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/
- Gizmodo summary of iCloud features: http://gizmodo.com/5808952/icloud
- Engadget summary of iOS 5 features: http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/06/apples-ios-5-all-the-details/
frans goes blog 