The iCloud just works ... but in whose favour?

No wonder Apple is keen to push the idea of a post-PC era in which all your stuff goes through its sprawling data complex

As with all Apple unveilings, the iCloud was met with a monsoon of hype. Introduced to the public at the tech monolith's developers conference last Monday, it was hailed as a "time warp loophole", a "tipping point", and "the end of stuff".

A bit much, considering how humdrum it is when compared to previous product launches. The iCloud is in substance a rebranding and expansion of Apple's MobileMe cloud service, which has ceased accepting new subscriptions and will be discontinued when iCloud goes live. In point of fact, there is nothing new here, apart from ambition. Most of us already utilise cloud computing on a daily basis, be it with Google Docs, Flickr or Tumblr. What differentiates the iCloud is how it hints at what's to come.

During his keynote, Steve Jobs, Apple's chief executive, boasted that the iCloud signifies the beginning of the post-PC era, stating: "We are going to demote the PC to just be a device. We are going to move the digital hub, the centre of your digital life, into the cloud." This will be profoundly liberating, if you are seeing things from the manicured lawns of Apple's walled garden. And not that it was a struggle in the first place, however life for Apple users will only get easier.

The consumer will be freed from the trappings of locality. With your Apple ID, everything will be automatic, available instantly, anywhere, any time, all made possible because your computing life will no longer be chained to a specific bit of hardware. Instead of relying on a physical hard drive, one's virtual belongings, along with those of millions of others, will all be contained within a sprawling coal-powered data complex located in North Carolina.

The initial phase of iCloudification will focus on specific types of data, just as iWorks documents, pictures and music. But in the long run it will consume everything - the endgame strategy being to integrate the iCloud into all aspects of computing.

One may interpret this new, free service as manna from the tech gods. Or like as not just as Apple keeping up-to-date now that cloud computing has captured the public imagination. However there's something far more sinister at work.

When Apple announced its Mac App Store in October, there was no shortage of handwringing over what it meant for computing. Critics accused Apple of being totalitarian in its regulation practices, and predicted that in the long run Mac users would only be able to purchase applications through Apple. Such analysis was premature; the iCloud is far more indicative of Apple's long-term strategy. By dismissing the importance of the personal computer and inviting its clients to let it hold on to their data "for free", we are getting a sneak peak at how it intends to engineer what Tim Wu calls "the master switch". Wu argues that as per previous cycles of communication consolidation, the internet will in the end be controlled by a small group of corporate monopolies. The "switch" is the ability to control competition, which comes from controlling the nature of the system.

During now that Apple favours a closed system

We've known for a during now that Apple favours a closed system. Clearly no one will be forced to join the cloud, such as no one is "forced" to watch television or use a phone. However if and when enough people do, it will become the status quo, and Apple might be able to exert pressure on any delinquent clients. The pressure will come from the offerings of media producers and application developers, who will find it much easier to make a profit once Apple's copyright-friendly version of the internet is routed through a system in other words never not connected to the North Carolina mothership.

The ability to exert influence over the nature of the online experience is the missing piece to Apple's blueprint for domination. And it will all be expertly marketed, such as Apple has marketed its hardware - by providing a user experience in other words more elegant and comfortable than that of its competitors. Nevertheless once Apple has its market locked in, there will be unexpected consequences. As we've seen in the case of Amazon and WikiLeaks, the politics of cloud computing can become insolvent to put it more exactly quickly.

In the wake of the recent attacks on supposedly secure corporations that have been proven to be defenceless, the stakes for online security have been raised. And during Apple will be working to create what can only become the holy grail of hackerdom, the increased volatility of networks is a key factor as to why its vision of a uniform interface has become so appealing.

'Apple iCloud what's it all about?' - video

What I can see from all I've read about cloud computing in general: benefits to the consumer, minimal if any; benefits to the corporation, multiple. Progress? A worthwhile advance? No. Resist!

A cloud storage system which could hold all your digital stuff? Do companies just as Apple know how much stuff some people have? iCloud offers 5GB of storage however I've got near a terabyte of stuff on one of my hard drives.

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Charles Arthur and Jemima Kiss: We follow the events unfolding while Apple's keynote address on the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco where Jobs is expected to reveal the details behind iCloud