It’s still a bit blurry, but many are seeing an Apple form in the cloud.
Along with announcing FaceTime and an HD video camera for the new iPod Touch,
Apple streamed its most recent press event to the web, testing its new data center in North Carolina. The data center is part of Apple’s transition to become, essentially, a cloud provider. Owning the corner on digital media and devices, an Apple transition to the cloud simply makes sense.
Apple sees the competitive advantage of the cloud. Right now an iTunes
cloud-based music service is only a rumor, but the construction of the largest data center in the world is a strong indicator something big is happening. Hosting media files in the new data center and streaming music and video over the web would make it easier for users to access their music. iTunes users could also keep their multiple devices synced simultaneously, easily. A home with an iTV, an iPad, multiple iPods and an iPhone or two could access their music remotely without having to store it on the phone.
The takeaway: the cloud is still evolving and changing how we interface with our data and the internet. In this case, Apple is using it to gain efficiencies for its customers and streamline the back-end processes associated with that.
Is the cloud still a little fuzzy for you? Watch
this video to learn what it is.