“After Apple tipped its hand on Tuesday and revealed it will unveil its new iCloud service next week, Wall Street analysts believe the company has set the stage for a strong software-focused Worldwide Developers Conference keynote,” Neil Hughes reports for AppleInsider.
“Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets sees Apple’s upcoming iCloud service as more than just a digital ‘locker’ service that will store users’ file[s],” Hughes reports. “To that effect, he sees iCloud allowing Apple to target iPhones at 5.1 billion handset users worldwide, compared to 1.3 billion PC users. iCloud could be an important step for Apple, making it so users are not required to have a Mac or PC to sync their device, or store music and movies. He imagines a new version of iOS where users no longer need to tether to a machine to upgrade their software, making the addressable market much larger.”
Hughes reports, “Shaw Wu with Sterne Agee said Apple’s unusual announcement on Tuesday, in which it revealed the talking points for Steve Jobs’ WWDC keynote, signals that most of the focus will probably be on the new iCloud service, which he believes “could be a very big deal.” He sees iCloud making iTunes even more powerful, allowing users to access their content from any device, anywhere. ‘We notice that every time a new feature is added to iTunes (like TV and movie rentals), its utility value increases, which in turn drives more hardware sales, i.e., iPhone, iPad and Macs,’ Wu said in a note to investors.”
Read more in the full article, including what might be coming in iOS 5 and Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, here.
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Apple to offer unparalleled ‘scan and match’ music service as part of iCloud – May 31, 2011