“Apple next week is likely to announce that all Mac owners who run the latest version of the OS X operating system, Lion, will also receive at least some of the services from iCloud for free,”Neil Hughes reports for AppelInsider.
“People familiar with Apple’s plans indicated to AppleInsider that at least one of those secrets is expected to be that at least some of the services included in iCloud will be offered for free to Mac users who make the upgrade to Lion,” Hughes reports. “iCloud is expected to replace the company’s existing MobileMe service, which offers e-mail and remote file storage, along with syncing of bookmarks, contacts and calendar events, at a price tag of $99 per year.”
Hughes reports, “That price tag may remain for users who do not make the upgrade to Lion, or for Windows users. But it is expected that the cloud services will become free to Mac users who run the latest version of Mac OS X.”
Read more in the full article, including rumors that Apple may place an “aggressive price point” on Lion, here.
I am predicting a $99 ipod with a 3G modem, five dollar music plan, 8GB internal storage and 100GB storage on iCloud.
I think it should take our itunes xml file, see what songs we have and play those tunes from their servers. Now, maybe this would be a lot of stress, but I feel like there has to be a way. The whole storing music on a cloud doesnt seem like a NETflix idea to me
Ummm…..haven’t you been reading the rumor sites? This is exactly what they have been saying. Look at MDN’s article from yesterday.
Fomenters fomenting.
Free? Or included in the purchase price of iTunes items?
The rich only get richer. Apple does not get richer by giving away products they can sell.
There are many drug dealers who would disagree with your last comment. And don’t forget, Apple’s got a boatload of Market-share to capture-Apple has to encourage switching: MS offer 15GB of online storage FREE. Then there’s the halo effect: those who buy one Apple product often by more, on the strength of their experience.
Maybe I should hang out with your drug dealers because I’ve never gotten anything for free.
iTunes is FREE software for Mac / Win.
Nobody is forcing you to use iTunes.
You can buy CDs & rip them into iTunes or other Music MP3 Library programs.
You can just use CD’s, cassettes, vinyl, etc & not be hassled with digital music distribution systems.
This rumor is about as likely as all the rumors over the past years which predicted Apple making MoibleMe free as well.
Would it include a cloud-based version of iWork?
This would eliminate the need for cross-platform versions in Windows and Linux. The world is desperate for a quality web-based Office package with power, a good interface and desktop integration. This would be a big win!
Good luck….after getting my MobileMe email shut down apparently because somehow more than 200 emails were sent from it, I’m pretty much done with MobileMe. Their support was 100 useless. I had some foreign chat support person who was overly polite, after 2 hours said they could not help me, and would not transfer me to a manager. Deja Vu, I thought it was 2005 and I had bought a Dell.
Apple has finally succumbed.
iTools, .Mac, MobileMe, iCloud …
Fourth time lucky?
Highly unlikely. MAC sheep will be more than willing to pay through their noses for the service
Free Willy, count me as a happy Mac sheep. I get more than $99 a year value. Mail is scriptable and allows integration with other applications that is unmatched by gmail, for example – and that feature alone is worth more than $99/year, to me. iDisk allows me to send a password to others for download of files that I want to make available to them. I use the convenience of selecting photos in Aperture that I want to put up in a Gallery.
I don’t have to worry that Apple’s services won’t be kept up to date with the latest OS X version. I don’t have to worry that the services are fly-by-night that will disappear without warning. Apple has a track record of evolving their services so that they have become more valuable to me, and I expect iCloud will evolve services that I will be content to pay for and use.
There’s still a lot of truth in the old maxim, that when you use services and products that are free, you get what you pay for. Apple’s business plan may well justify providing some of the services I’ve been paying for in MobileMe for no charge, as value added when one purchases their hardware and operating system. But I fully expect that there will be options for a fee, and if they are worth it to me I may happily end up paying my current subscription price or more – and feeling that I’ve gotten a good bargain.
free william, you must get everything of value for free. Congratulations to you.