“Speaking on Apple’s fiscal first-quarter conference call, Cook talked about iCloud,” Larry Dignan reports for CNET. “He noted that iCloud had 85 million customers signed up and said, ‘The response from customers has been incredible. It solves a lot of problems that customers were having and made their lives much easier. And so I see it as a fundamental shift, recognizing that people had numerous devices, and they wanted the bulk of their content in the cloud, and easily accessible from all of the devices. I think we’re seeing the response from that, and with 85 million customers in just three months, It is just not a product. It is a strategy for the next decade.'”
Dignan writes, “Cook is absolutely correct that the iCloud is a strategy for the next decade. The catch is that many others have the same outlook.”
Read more in the full article here.
Related articles:
Thurrott reviews Apple iCloud: ‘Best consumer-oriented cloud computing service I’ve ever seen’ – November 28, 2011
Apple’s matchless iTunes Match – November 15, 2011
Analyst: iCloud biggest thing for Apple since iTunes Store introduction – November 8, 2011
Why iCloud will be one of the most important products for Steve Jobs’ legacy – October 28, 2011
Apple’s huge monetary commitment to iCloud creates barrier of entry for would-be rivals – October 14, 2011
WSJ reviews Apple iCloud: Worked without a hitch, plus it’s free – October 12, 2011
The catch is that everyone will half ass try to put up an iCloud product and fail.
True, very true!
They are still trying to get the iPod correct, let alone the iPad or iPhone …..
and to think they could get the iCould right – The guy is out of his mind – He is an idiot …..
The catch will be when some half ass hacker does a $ony type break into a major Cloud provider…then what. Either have privacy or use a Cloud.
just my $0.02
I’ve never used MobileMe so I don’t know what a pig’s breakfast that was.
And so when Steve said in WWDC 2011, “Why should we trust these guys, they’re the ones who brought us MobileMe.” I remained sceptical.
And so I took some time tinkering around with iCloud for half a day when it was launched and now I’m sold. It really works seamlessly in the background pushing changes to all your devices without you needing to lift a finger. I thought it would be more complicated than that but it turned out to be a piece of cake.
I’m now a fervent supporter of iCloud. It’s like The Force, it’s all around us, like Midi-Chlorians binding everything together, making the Mac/iOS experience seamless and enjoyable.
Steve, thank you for your last big act before leaving us.
So you’ve never used it, yet you condemn it without a second thought based on nothing more than the rantings of other ill-informed people. Very intelligent!!!
… he never used it. And he bashed it. Regular readers of this … source – it covers Apple products and the like when not bashing democrats, liberals, progressives and other followers of Christ … may well recall the vast number of anti iTools, .Mac and MobileMe rants. Maybe he listened?
Nevertheless, legions of MobileMe fans have been complaining bitterly in the Apple discussion forums about the loss of this service. Complainers often have extremely limited experience with a product or service before trashing it because that’s what they love to do: complain. Lovers of MobileMe have been using it (and its prior incarnations) for years. Many have learned to appreciate and rely on MobileMe’s best features, some of which are not easily replaceable. Those who are praising iCloud evidently have no interest in the features it is missing, but long-time MobileMe users know different.
As i am a big mobileme user…nothing is lost!!! I don’t get it!?? Why do you guys keep saying the features are gone???
Mail is there. iDisk is there. Gallery is there. Calendar is there. It’s all there.
iCloud has made it better!!!
I suspect one day we can all move our gallery.me.con to gallery.icloud.con. Until that say, I will anticipate the new system and new features!!!
MobileMe is great! ICkoud is greater!
You’re kidding, right? Gallery is absolutely not there. PhotoStream is something completely different and includes no online photo galleries whatsoever. iDisk is also not there. No general file storage/filesharing is offered in the iCloud subscription. You may be a big MobileMe user, but you don’t know what you’re talking about re. iCloud.
Nicely said, BLN.
As a paid dotMac and MobileMe subscriber, I can say that iCloud is not only far superior, but seems Whole somehow. The others seemed like a patchwork collection of services, some of which had little appeal and some of which did not work.
My sister used MobileMe for web site hosting, but that capability seems lost with iCloud.
How can iCloud be “far superior” when it is missing MobileMe’s best features? iCloud may be a more reliable sync agent, but offers nothing to replace MobileMe’s most useful features: photo galleries, iDisk storage/filesharing, iWeb publishing and screen sharing.
It’s far superior in the sense that Free is far superior to $99 per year.
Mail is better. Dropbox replaces iDisk, and I didn’t use the other features you mentioned.
om & jane — two different outlying data points, perhaps? Let’s await the results of the satisfaction survey of the 85 million iCloud users, while swapping anecdotal data.
iCloud itself is free, but replacing MobileMe’s missing features is not free. For example, Dropbox doesn’t replace iDisk for file sharing unless you never share large files or pay for additional Dropbox features. Online photo galleries are also not free unless you’re satisfied with the cluttered, ad-dense interfaces offered by Flickr and Picasa. iCloud may be free, but you get what you pay for.
Of course, if you don’t use some of MobileMe’s features, you won’t miss them. But that’s just you.
Jane: So you’re saying iCloud is worth exactly what you pay for it?
I’m with omalansky on this one.
I used MobileMe from day-one and liked it very much for a variety of daily tasks.
BLN posts stuff like this, then turns around and posts stupid misinformed troll posts about what a mediocre piece of crap the iPhone is.
This guy seriously needs to even out his meds.
——RM
Maybe he’s John Dvorak in disguise.
It is 2014.
Apple has more cash than Microsoft’s entire market cap.
Ballmer himself is long gone. Where is he? With his Zune?
Balmer’s Right Nut appears.
Actually, Apple has already saved everybody else the trouble of coming up with a half-assed version of iCloud. iCloud is a free version of MobileMe with all the best features removed. It may work as advertised, but it’s a pale shadow of what MobileMe could have (and should have) been imho.
Do you realize you’re an idiot, and just not care?
Or do you think we’re idiots who are going to believe you?
well said, you diaper wearing, rabid, drooling fan boy. Pathetic.
I realize that you an idiot. Will that do, you miserable piece of horse manure?
Hey, can I get in on the insults, you fargin’ iceholes?
Fix the damn iCloud webmail, Apple. It’s slow as hell!
Hasn’t been slow for me at all.
iCloud is stunningly simple. I haven’t even tinkered with it, aside from turning it on. It just exists and works without me doing anything.
I know quite a few average level computer users that have activated it, but don’t know what it really does. Then they trip out when an app suddenly appears on their iPhone or whatever.
In my opinion Apple has left iCloud relatively low key, but on purpose.
It’s going to be very difficult to copy, since nothing is integrated to the point Apple’s products are. There will be all these “cloud” services come and go, leaving people stranded when it’s shut down, while most Apple users already have the best one and hardly even know it!
I Cloud is truly Awesome !!!!!
… and worth every penny you paid for it.
iCloud will make permanent Apple customers out of anyone who buys an iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad or Mac. It is Apple’s strategic time bomb against its competitors.
MobileMe was useful when it was working correctly. And for many people it was (for the most part), but many others had persistent problems with it. In addition, it was a relatively complicated set of services and features that was clearly geared towards more technologically astute users.
iCloud is completely transparent to the users. It simply exists there in the background and takes care of its thing, much like the Time Machine on the Mac. Ordinary user doesn’t even need to know it exists. All bookmarks will be simply pushed, practically in real-time, onto all iDevices; as soon as picture is shot, it appears everywhere; same thing with contacts, messages iWork documents, etc. Mobile me never did all of that, and for that reason alone iCloud is better.
As for photo galleries, shared file storage and similar, I doubt that it was a major selling point for MobileMe; at least not for the majority of users. If they were anything like a friend of mine, all they needed was a tool to sync their address book across their Apple hardware, with perhaps a good e-mail service provider. Very few were actually aware of the web hosting and file storage features.
We’re not interested in subscription-based computing from ANY provider, thank you very much.
Much ado about nothing. Cloud my ass…
When- not if-iCloud gets hacked it just means ALL your shit gets compromised. No thanks, not as long as I have my own storage.
I do have iCloud as I had all going back to iTools. It’s nice- but not that special or worth paying for. iTunes Match is, however, a freaking steal.
These numbers are made up:
Of all MobileMe users:
100% used mail
85% used contacts
70% used calendar
40% used gallery
10% used iDisk
1% used iWeb
So…it makes sense which ones you make work better.
Why do I use gallery? Because I don’t want to use Flickr and want seedless integration with Aperture, iPhoto and iMovie, and I certainly do not want to build my own website!
MobileMe/iCloud is exactly what I need to schedule my life and share my media (with whom I choose).