Tuesday, July 22, 2008 -- 3:56 p.m. -- at my desk

Normally, unless they are those pretty, puffy fair-weather ones, clouds aren't so great. They're dreary and stormy.

But Apple's cloud is not only puffy and fair-weather, it's the beginning of the company's beautiful future.

All of the other sites and blogs out there are misreading Apple's cryptic announcement yesterday about a new product that will contain technology that others just can't match. The first thought was that it has to be a tablet. Or something touch-technology related.

But truth be told, that technology can be matched. Tablets have been out for years. Steve Jobs has said that he doesn't like tablets. Touch technology, while made popular on the iPhone, isn't limited to Apple. Apple does it best and will likely continue to do it best for a long time to come, but no, that's not it either.

And while the tablet may still be a part of the roadmap, along with revamped and reimagined iPods and computers, Apple's big technology that can't be matched and that is going to change the world is the cloud.

For those of you fashionably late to the party, the cloud isn't Apple's invention. A cloud is just a place where information is stored in a virtual sense and pushed via a wireless sync. It's the power behind the oft-complained about Mobile Me, which, when working correctly, is how your contacts, bookmarks and calendar items stay in constant sync between computer, iPhone and Web.

While Apple has had a lot of trouble getting the cloud and MobileMe to work perfectly, believe me when I say that Apple never intended the cloud to be just for calendar items and contacts. Apple is starting small with the cloud, seeing what works and what doesn't and then will take it to the next level.

You know how people say that Apple gadget fans tend to be beta testers when it comes to new products? How the first and even second iteration of iPhone is actually a test for something so much bigger in a year or less? Same exact thing with the cloud, callers. Same deal with MobileMe. The 1 percent or so who are having the dire problems now are the guinea pigs that are stuck in the giant wheel. The other 99 percent, while not complaining, are also beta testers.

For $99 a year, you are given the privilege of testing Apple's next big invention -- maybe you didn't realize that until you read this entry, maybe you did, but MobileMe is just a small part of what Apple has in store.

You saw with this version of the iPhone how Apple moved away with little fanfare from the dock, right? You can sync your iPhone, but you don't need a dock to do it. Actually, the only reason you NEED to sync your iPhone with a cable is to sync music, videos and podcasts. Apps are done over the air. And the other stuff I mentioned with MobileMe via the cloud is also over the air.

But -- and here's the great innovation that's going to change the world part -- the cloud, once past strict and repeated beta testing, is about to become the center of your computing universe.

Picture ALL of your music, ALL of your videos, ALL of your photos, ALL of your podcasts, ALL of your files, ALL of your apps, ALL of your contacts, ALL of your calendar items, ALL of your bookmarks, ALL of your mail -- everything you use a computer for today -- being stored in this cloud of unlimited storage.

That's the innovation.
That's what Apple is talking about
That's what coming

And whether it's all this year or in 5 years doesn't really matter. That's where we're headed.

So knowing that, think of a tablet in September similar to what I described in the last post ... a tablet that's a piece of glass with a slot-loading drive for CDs that comes with a stand that you set up at whatever Starbucks you are in. The cloud holds the info. So if the tablet has a less than stellar sized amount of memory -- picture the MacBook Air -- you can still get your software and whatever you need onto it. And, because the cloud is wired to everything else in perfect harmony, you can operate on your iPhone the same way you operate on the tablet, the same way you operate on your computer.

Think of MobileMe now as being MobileMe junior. The real MobileMe is yet to come. The real MobileMe is MobileYou plus the cloud.

That's how Apple thinks. It's about reading between the lines. No one said that the product that no one can match had to be a product you can actually touch, right?

Think about that.

And think about leaving me a comment ... I always want to know what you think.

Thanks for calling.

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I think you are spot on, my friend. The clearest indication of your supposition being true is the deliberate detraction away from greater storage capacity on the iPhone, iPod touch (future of the iPod line) and Macbook Air. Everyone griped about the paltry amounts of storage offered in the iPhone when it first came out and certainly were disappointed with the additions of the 3G connectivity and Assisted GPS but no bump up to 32 GB to match the high-end iPod Touch. The iPod Touch isnt congruous with the roadmap standard for the iPod line in that storage be the differential among newer models. The Macbook Air is innovative for being thin and light but I think it was an introduction to the reliance we will have on cloud computing. AppleTV has been neglected intentionally; it is to be the quintessential cloud device. It will bring us television programming, various media from our personal computers, interface with our home automation systems--possibilities are endless. Time Capsule is for those having difficulty making the transition to the cloud; perhaps Apple will offer concurrent storage in the cloud when 1TB isn't enough.

Apple has invested far too much in MobileMe to have it just be "Exchange for the rest of us." Just take a look at the usability design of the www.MobileMe.com; it is designed in true minimalistic form but with a serious indentation to the left on the application bar housing currently Mail, iDisk, Photo Gallery, Contacts and Calendar. There is a clear prophetic touch here-leaving space and opportunity for additional functionality and API's-accessible from any and all Mac OS X devices. Apple shared with us all the web technologies used in its arsenal-SpoutCore-because they see it as integral to the development for the cloud. Why use technologies like Flash or frameworks like AJAX as the intermediary between our devices and the cloud when they can develop on an open standard that isn't platform or hardware specific but robust enough to mirror the Mac OS X interface?

Besides touch, there is a new interface to be exploited by Apple that meld well with its consumer-centric business model: the Cloud. Cloud computing standardizes the user experience among variant yet interfacable devices which is exactly what Apple develops. What better way to keep those devices in communication while enhancing functionality than to have them all have a shared experience that is familiar to the user as they go from the living room to the study or from the office to the car. It is far easier for Apple to achieve market saturation when no previous devices (i.e. iPhone, iPhone 3G) become obsolete because they all offer comparable experiences via the cloud.

Farewell niche products, hello ubiquity.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I'll quote you, DeLano: "Apple has invested far too much in MobileMe to have it just be "Exchange for the rest of us."

That is so key. So very key.

man! I'm starting to have butterflies!

SCOTT'S REPLY: Exciting, isn't it?

Scott - you may very well be correct, but it's not as cool as thinking that it's a new piece of hardware (something you CAN touch). .. .Jim

SCOTT'S REPLY: Ahhhh, but I beg to differ ... at least a little. I want to touch hardware, too, but knowing what this software can lead to in terms of future hardware is good enough for me.

Interesting thought. But I don't know...sounds a little "The Network Is The Computer" to me.

And I'd imagine internet connection speeds could prove to be a major barrier/bottleneck to many people around the world. Not every Mac user has access to affordable high-speed broadband. Probably not even in five years.

But interesting nevertheless. It'd definitely have to work a whole lot better & be much more stable than MobileMe is right now, to say the least! :-)

SCOTT'S REPLY: Ahhh, but remember ... with Apple's influence, this could push wider acceptance into faster broadband. I think this is going to push companies to create differently based on Apple's creativity. Just like they are doing with iPhone software.

And when the cloud goes down you have nothing?

SCOTT"S REPLY: That's the inherent risk with any technology, though ... and no, you'd still have everything on your devices ... the ability to sync might be interrupted, but that's fixable.

People need to know the history of internet, before they make comments about Cloud going down!!! Internet is based on DARPA's Project --

http://www.freesoft.org/CIE/Topics/57.htm

SCOTT"S REPLY: Interesting reading. Thanks, Viswakarma.

Well, maybe... or maybe way not. I tend to agree with Joel on this one.
http://joelonsoftware.com/items/2008/05/01.html

SCOTT'S REPLY: I completely disagree with Joel. Nobody trusted Microsoft's cloud because no one trusts Microsoft with their personal information. It's all about how you utilize what you have, and Apple would do a better job with this than Microsoft ever would, assuming it's fair to compare them.

Reminds me of one of the first music sites, mp3.com when you inserted your audio CD, it just unlocked it and immediately you had access to all the songs on their website. You didn't waste space loading the music and they only needed to keep one copy of "Flirtin with Disaster"

I'm still shocked that I actually download the movies/tv shows that i buy from the iTunes store, just hold it for me and when I want to watch you stream it to my tv/computer/etc.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Right! Interesting comparison to mp3.com -- come to think of it, it is kind of like that.

The Joy of Tech has an idea of what the new product will be. ;-)

http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1132.html

SCOTT'S REPLY: As usual, absolutely awesome.

The cloud cannot possibly hold all 2TB of my data and give me near-instant access to all of it, regardless of the network connection speed. The data files for a typical Final Cut project will run into the gigabytes, and there's just no way that's going to come down out of the cloud at anything resembling a decent rate of speed.

And even if it does come *down* out of the cloud that fast, getting data back *up* into the cloud is going to be the bottleneck. Even FIOS, the current affordable speed leader, maxes out on the affordable plan at 2Mbps upload speed -- and that's slow if you're talking about moving gigabytes of data up.

Do I think Apple will do more with MobileMe? Absolutely. Do I think they'll eventually have unlimited storage for all Mac users, with near-instant access from anywhere? No way.

SCOTT'S REPLY: I understand the caution when talking about files of this magnitude -- I totally do, but I believe it can be done and I believe Apple's the company that's going to make it happen. I'm not saying tomorrow, of course, but I'm also not saying 10 years.

"SCOTT'S REPLY: I completely disagree with Joel. Nobody trusted Microsoft's cloud because no one trusts Microsoft with their personal information. It's all about how you utilize what you have, and Apple would do a better job with this than Microsoft ever would, assuming it's fair to compare them."

And that right there is when I stopped taking you seriously.

I'll trust Microsoft with my information long before I trust Apple with it. I agree that the cloud is the future but it will be Google or Microsoft who delivers. Apple knows hardware. Microsoft and Google know information integration.

SCOTT'S REPLY: Really? You'll seriously trust Microsoft with your information before Apple? I keep reading this over and over to see if I misread it ... that's just the craziest thing I've ever heard.

This probably doesn't hve a whole lot to do with this post, but a different one of yours.

I saw some phone manufacturer has plans to have a projector and LCD screen (think I'm getting it right)where you can project your computer screen from the phone. So you have an easily viewable screen and carry only a small phone. Now, that's a thought that sounds very promising. Wonder if Apple would try to beat them to the punch.

Link: http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/07/23/openmoko-signs-deal-for-global-neo-freerunner-distribution/#more-4377

SCOTT'S REPLY: I think Apple filed a patent for something virtual reality based several months ago. I did a patent search and didn't see it, but I could have sworn I remembered that.

You are describing Live Mesh. Take a look at the goals of Mesh and you are spot on with what Mesh is doing. I'm in the public preview of it right now and it is doing just what you are saying above.. its like the future is now.. literally right now!

Besides Microsoft, lots of companies are investing in technology to do this kind of thing now.. I'm sure that Apple will improve on MobileMe and keep pushing in this direction. They have to do this just like Microsoft and Google will have to in order to stay current and relevant as they compete with one another.

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