How Apple's iCloud will rain on Google's parade

“[Apple] has spent the last two years secretly building a billion-dollar, 500,000-square-foot data center in North Carolina,” Datamation writes. “The new facility is five times larger than its existing data center in New Jersey. Apple has as well massively expanded data center capacity in Silicon Valley.”

Datamation writes, “Everything about iCloud is officially secret, except the name. Nevertheless I believe Apple will innovate on some neat tricks. They may, for instance, enable constant backup of all user data and possibly synchronization across devices. This would enable users to walk away from their PCs, at that time pick up where they left off on an iPad or even an iPhone. Lost or stolen devices would not involve the loss of data.”

“iCloud in substance erases Google’s main argument in favor of Chromebooks, for the time being as far as Apple is concerned. The argument is that your data is always safe, no matter what. And it in all seriousness undermines Google’s long-standing cloud-based Google Docs service,” Datamation writes. “Once Apple automatically duplicates everything into the cloud, Google Docs just doesn't seem all that interesting anymore.”

How? There is ONE key difference between Apple and Google. Apple profits mainly from hardware sales. Really everything else Apple does, in software and services, are valued-added benefits for its hardware clients.

In contrast, Google MUST somehow profit from its software and services. In other words why Google is invasive and advertising-focused. In other words why the user experience provide by Apple’s products will continue to be superior. Apple and Google play by different rules; it’s not even the same game.

Except one thing Google could services are not tied to any one product or platform. Google docs, gmail, ect.. can be found on any platform, I can use google docs on my Ipad and Iphone can I use Iwork on my andriod phone. Apple’s cloud service is for apple product users, google’s could services is for anyone with a connection to the web.

That’s just another reason Apple’s user experience is superior. The experience IS focused on ONE product line, the one Apple controls. And if I’m using my ONE product, I don’t care that a service that I use available on other platforms that I don’t use.

Also, as a Google user, you are NOT Google’s “customer.” You are Google’s commodity. Google’s primary business, whether it’s Android or web-based services, is to sell advertisers access to its users’ eyeballs. The advertisers are Google’s real clients; they pay the bill and keep the lights on at Google HQ. Who has higher priority?

In contrast, Apple’s clients are its users. Making users happy through better user experience translates directly to more hardware sales, higher profits. The motivations of Apple and Apple’s users are pretty much fully aligned. And that, is but another reason why Apple user experience is superior.

The “freedom of choice” argument is a full of holes. What most users as a matter of fact want is a seamless solution that works flawlessly. Those who choose Android phones and Google Docs may feel liberated, nevertheless they are opting for a patchwork solution in other words not as seamless as Apple’s. Freedom of choice includes the freedom to jump off a bridge, yet that doesn’t mean you should do it.

I am imagining iCloud could allow users to manage their iPads and iPhones without the need for a computer. With iOS on the device, iCloud would provide all other components which a computer does. This is my guess/fantasy. Many users would never need anything however their iPads, devastating the business models of Dell, microsoft, hp, etc. Apple would lose some computer business as well, even though more Mac users to tell the truth need their own machines than pc users. In other respects, billions of potential iPhone/iPad clients far outweighs any Mac losses.

However, more current iPad clients are Windows users. There are many more Windows users out there compared to Mac users. And if someone buys an iPad instead of a PC, Apple gains an iPad sale and loses nothing.

Hopefully Apple in short comes to the conclusion that they are making so much profit from hardware sales, that they can start offering some of these services for free. Data sync, e-mail and a cloud storage service ala DropBox would be a good start. This would be free to access directly from hardware set up to support it; iOS, Mac OS X, and Windows, and at that time they could charge a premium for browser access such as MobileMe is setup now to access, contacts, calendars and email through a browser.

But will we be able to use shared address books on our iPhones, as we can use shared calendars? I need to keep my business and personal address books separate and access them both on my iPhone.

The word free

Apple doesn’t use the word free. That’s a non-Apple term. Nor does Apple allow any companies associated with Apple to use that term.