After a series of announcements regarding the plans of entering the cloud market, Apple has come up with a strong version of implementing its idea. It’s being called as the iCloud, which allows users to synchronize their applications and media across all their devices. It is also made clear that it would be different from the one that Google is already offering, truly a spirited decision to enter the field of cloud computing.Google offers a variety of online services, but its basking on the most sought after Chrome OS(a cloud based product), an operating system which just has a web browser and nothing else. All the other applications that a user wants to run can be done through the web browser and web applications itself. This saves a lot of time during the startup, shutdown, processing of applications, etc.The case with iCloud is that the users have the freedom to download and install any kind of software and run it at their will regardless of the device that they use.
Differences between Google and Apple’s cloud services as noticed by John Gruber and as mentioned in his blog Daring Fireball, “Your data will anyways will be in the cloud in both the cases and is accessible from any place with an internet connection. Google’s aim is to run it in a web browser, whereas Apple wants to have native apps which can be run on any device. It is very much particular about native apps as it has a lot of products such as tablets, desktops, music players, etc. Apple’s frame is the screen. Google’s frame is the web browser window.”
Differences made to the consumer:
Apple is much more user friendly when compared to Google as it implements out of the box ideas and not just pertaining to the browser. Even Google is working its heart out on surprising the consumers with a completely new concept, but Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs referred to iCloud as a “ hard drive in the sky”. iCloud is equally competitive as you could use all kinds of applications and when you’re done with using it, can just move all those applications, files and settings to another device, if necessary. It can be very simple and can store all the files required in an ordered way rather than just piling up hierarchy of data in an awkward manner. Apple’s iPad and iPhone have already proved their working nature. If at all you need a music file, you don’t need to search the entire hard drive. You can just open the music app and search there. It is in sharp contrast with the cloud storage that Google offers through Google Docs,which enables storing files regardless of application. As of now, all the preloaded apps are made only by Apple and will soon open up all ends for other developers to make inroads through a series of APIs (Application Programming Interfaces).
Well, only time can answer if this venture from Apple would be fruitful or not. Let’s wait and see!
Bhanu Teja Kurucheti | YourStory.in
