Apple poised to introduce Lion

WASHINGTON: Apple chief executive Steve Jobs is taking a break from medical leave Monday to preside over the opening of the company's annual conference for software developers.

And in a break from Apple's usual practice of shrouding its events in an air of mystery, the California gadget-maker this time revealed ahead of time what it plans to announce at the event in San Francisco.

Press release

In a press release, Apple said Jobs and other executives will unveil the then and there generation of Lion, the software that powers Macintosh computers, and iOS 5, the then version of the mobile operating system for the iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

Apple described the earlier unknown iCloud as its "upcoming cloud services offering" nevertheless provided no furthermore details of what awaits at the annual Worldwide Developers Conference.

"iCloud was nearly a throwaway line in the press release," said Michael Gartenberg, an analyst for research research company Gartner. "Nevertheless that's getting the most scrutiny because we don't know anything about it."

According to multiple reports, iCloud would allow for streaming of music hosted on Apple servers in the Internet "cloud" to various devices - from computers to smartphones to touchscreen tablets.

The New York Times reported Friday that Apple has near completed talks with the major music publishers over the new cloud music service afterwards sealing deals with the four major record labels.

The Los Angeles Times said iCloud will at first be offered for free to iTunes users, allowing them to listen to music hosted on Apple servers on a Web browser or an Internet-connected Apple device.

Web-hosted music service from Apple

A Web-hosted music service from Apple would come just weeks afterwards online retail giant Amazon and Internet search titan Google unveiled their own cloud music offerings.

Amazon launched a Cloud Drive and Cloud Player music service in March that lets subscribers to upload digital music to Amazon servers and play it on a computer or an Android device.

Google's music service introduced in May lets people store their music collections in online libraries for streaming to computers, smartphones and tablets.

Apple service

Gartenberg said he expects an Apple service would "provide consumer value, differentiation from what's come previously and a way of taking the market forward."

"What is going to be that extra Apple bit of magic that's going to be infused that will drive consumers to use this?" he asked.

"Apple was not the first company to offer downloads of music," he said. "Nevertheless they did it the best and in a word conquered the market. They weren't first with MP3 players or smartphones."

"It'll be interesting to see if new business models are introduced," he added. "If we're talking about new ways to purchase, rent, listen to music, and share."