Hi Rob,
I just listened to episode 178 in which you described all the new announcements coming out of WWDC. Great rundown of all the new features, but I think it’s important not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. What I didn’t hear was any kind of analysis of what all these new features mean for the future of iOS, the future of computing, and the future of mobile.
Personally, I was blown away by how with iOS 5 and iCloud, Apple is transforming mobile computing. Apple appears to have looked at all of the hassles that currently exist with mobile computing, and made them simply vanish into the cloud.
The most significant aspect of all this for me is that--assuming this all works the way Apple has laid it out, and I believe it will as Apple has been laying the groundwork for years—the end user will never need to know how to access the iCloud or how to look for their stuff in the cloud. All their email, calendars, contacts, documents, books, photos, music (and I would assume before long their TV shows and movies) will just magically appear and be updated on all their devices without the user having to lift a finger. The iCloud will be completely invisible to the end user. For the user, the term “iCloud” will merely be the answer to the question, “How the heck do the latest versions of all my stuff just magically appear on all my Apple devices instantaneously?” The solution is so simple a child can use it, totally seamless, perfectly elegant, and will surely seem magical—the quintessential Apple solution.
For me, it will eliminate most of the frustrations I’ve been having as I’ve struggled to maintain my family’s various Apple devices—2 MacBooks, 2 iPads, 2 iPhones, and 2 iPad Classics. With over 300 applications on my iPhone 4 alone, it has been a constant hassle to keep the apps updated—problem solved with automatic delta updates. It has been a pain to keep all our devices updated with the latest iOS release—problem solved with auto updates. It has been confusing trying to keep all the calendars and contacts current on all devices—problem solved automatically. It has been a nightmare trying to remember which device contained which version of which documents, songs, and photos—problem solved automatically. All the back-ups of our various devices sometimes take up over 25 GB of storage on my older MacBook Pro’s 80 GB hard drive—causing me to be constantly confronting a full hard drive—problem solved by automatically backing up to the iCloud instead of my Mac’s hard drive.
This is a solution that only Apple could implement with its tightly integrated hardware, software, and now cloud services, although of course other companies will struggle in vain to emulate its simplicity and ease of use. Once the iCloud infrastructure is firmly in place, I can see Apple coming out with a series of new devices over the next 10 years that automatically tie in—automatically syncing and updating in real time. And the fact that it’s all free (except for the very reasonable iTunes Match service for non-Apple music) makes it a built-in feature of whatever Apple device you purchase. I think when people start experiencing these services in action, it will encourage them to add to their personal ecosystem of Apple products, and will highlight the shortcomings of the Android system. I don’t now if I can wait until fall to get my hands on iOS 5—I may need to look for the link you mentioned or pay the $100 for the developer preview.
My hat is off to Steve Jobs and the rest of the Apple crew for pulling us into the next age of mobile computing and communications.
Any many thanks to you, Rob, for the great job you do in keeping your listeners informed about all the latest and greatest from Cupertino!
-Bob from Austin, Texas-
