Steve Jobs appeared at the opening of Apple’s Worldwide Developer conference on Monday with what he said was a new approach to personal computing that had been ten years in gestation: the iCloud.
The service is based on an idea that Mr Jobs said he had a decade ago, and which involved computers becoming personal hubs. The iCloud will store all of a users’ content, and push it to all of that person’s Apple devices: “iCloud is integrated with your apps, so everything happens automatically.”
Details from the presentation follow after the break.
The gaunt-looking Mr Jobs admitted to earlier missteps by Apple in cloud computing. MobileMe, a $99-a-year personal email, calendar and back-up service, was “not our finest hour,” he said.
The new iCloud would include the MobileMe apps, written from the ground up, he said. It would also be free, and would not include advertising – unlike most of the other “free” services online by other companies.
The free version of the service comes with 5GB of storage.
Key aspects of the iCloud service include:
- iTunes users can now sync music they buy on iTunes to up to 10 other devices over the air – a capability that was heavily trailed in advance, as Apple reached deals with the four main music labels.
- Music not purchased on iTunes can also be added to the iCloud, through a service called iTunes Match that costs $24.99 a year. Thanks to the deals Apple has struck with music labels, users don’t need to upload their music libraries. Instead, Apple scans a user’s hard drive and matches the songs to the 18m tunes it already holds on its servers.
- A Photo Stream feature that syncs the most recent 1,000 pictures taken to other devices automatically, so a picture snapped on an iPhone can be viewed instantly on an iPad.
- Documents created with iWork apps are automatically stored in the cloud and available from other devices.
- All new Apple devices automatically sync to the iCloud over the air, after users enter their Apple ID.
Earlier, Scott Forstall, head of iOS operating system development, came on stage to show off version 5 of the software, which he said will ship “this fall” – though he did not announce a firm date.
Among the features he showed off was a new way to activate an iPhone: just by turning it on, with no need to plug it into a PC first. It was, as one of the slides at the demo boasted, “Post PC” – a recurrent theme at Monday’s event.
Mr Forstall also issued the familiar round of big numbers that Apple likes to come up with events like this. Such as: some 200m devices with the iOS operating system have now been sold.Google’s Android may have taking up the running on smartphones, but according to Apple, iOS still accounts for 44 per cent of the installed base of mobile operating systems, compared to Android’s 28 per cent market share.
Other iOS stats: 15bn iTunes songs & 25m iPads sold, $2.5bn paid out to developers, 90,000 iPad-specific apps available, 14bn downloads from the App Store & 130m downloads from iBookstore.
Apple also now also has credit card and other details for 225m iTunes accounts (the last number the company disclosed was 200m, in March).
Among the new features in iOS 5:
- iMessage. A new messaging service between all iOS users. This one looks aimed squarely at BlackBerry’s popular messaging system.
- Deeper integration of Twitter, making it easier to send photos, articles from the Safari browser or maps. It works between devices, so you can start type a message on an iPhone, then carry on from an iPad.
- Newstand, a new home for magazines and newspapers, allowing background downloading of latest editions for off-line reading.
To start his keynote speech at the developer conference, Mr Jobs called Phil Schiller, the company’s head of product marketing, on stage to show off the latest version of the Mac OS X operating system, codenamed Lion.
The new software goes on sale next month, with upgrades costing at $29.99 – a price cut earlier versions of OS X. It will be available as a 4GB download from the Mac App Store (the discs are no more).
Among the features new to OS X:
- AirDrop, a new way to share files with other users on a shared WiFi network by simply “dropping” onto a named user.
- Launchpad, a touchscreen feature that arranges all the apps on the machine in a grid with a single gesture – very much inspired by iOS.
- A way to move more easily between all open Windows, using something known as Mission Control.
- A built-in app store for purchasing software, including a facility for in-app purchases.
- Resume, a way to relaunch an application at the same point the user was at the last time the application was closed.
It has been a rough year for the PC, with consumer sales stalling as tablet computers start to draw attention. The Mac has fared better, according to Mr Schiller: Macs sales have grown by 28 per cent while PCs have declined by 1 per cent, he said.
