My understanding of Cloud computer and how it works is limited so I might be way off the mark with this!
We know that the Apple fell and so helped Newton to prove gravity existed but I have started to wonder whether it is possible for the Apple to rise up to the Cloud.
Microsoft are working hard on getting more of their software into the Cloud as that is seen to be the way that technology is moving with everything being hosted for us in giant datacenters and not so much on our own local machines. We can see this very clearly with Windows Azure, where Microsoft are moving Windows to the cloud, but Office is following suite and it wouldn’t be too difficult for Windows Live to only exist online. There are other services based in the cloud such as Live Mesh too that show Microsoft is keen to keep all our information online to be accessed anywhere.
Competitors are also taking things up to the cloud, Google and Amazon being perhaps the two biggest with what they already offer. Google have even announced their Chrome OS; it could just be a browser with an extremely limited connection with the user’s computer so that everything is stored in the cloud. If this approach is taken with the future operating system basically being a browser to hosted applications then I can see one major issue for one company and it is with Apple. It might just be that Apple are working hard on taking their operating system and other services to the cloud but because they hardly ever disclose anything until its ready to be released it is currently not being reported, but I am not so sure they even really want too.
The whole point of Apple is too make very stylish hardware with its own operating system and in doing so making it tricky for people to use their software on any other device. If Apple were to take their OS up to the cloud then it would be accessed via the internet and therefore anyone could have access to it if they had an internet connection.
Apple already allow Windows to be installed on their machines which benefits both Apple and Microsoft, but Apple knows if they didn’t make it easy for people to use Windows they would see less sales of their hardware with their own operating system. With only 4% of the computer operating system market share it is clear to see Windows has the normal OS market controlled and I expect Apple don’t see a way to gain a better market share in the cloud with an operating system.
If Apple don’t offer hosted apps and an operating system to match what will happen to them? They would surely just become a premium hardware manufacturer allowing people an expensive way to the internet and any number of competitors’ online OSes, not a business model I can see working very well.
As I said at the start I might have this all wrong but from what I can tell the future looks very shady for Apple as the company that we know and some love.
