the next mobile battleground
Flash was just a minor skirmish. Today Adobe Flash has little (and steadily decreasing) relevance in the internet landscape. The cloud is going to be the next major battleground of the mobile revolution. The latest breakthrough software has been based on internet services coupled with well integrated client applications. Here are a few examples that iPhone users should be well aware of:
- Dropbox
- Instapaper
- Simplenote
These are some pioneers of the real cloud services that have seemed like a pipe dream for the last decade.
Google has been banking on the cloud. They’ve been pushing their web apps for years. They offer a wide range of free, ad-supported tools and services to anyone who will choose a username and password.
The iPhone, and more importantly the App Store, has brought a many of these cloud based services to mobile devices in an effective and usable way for the first time in history. No longer is a phone relegated to calls, texts, and email.
Google has recently been pushing hard to catch up with devices that can stand next to the iPhone. They’ve been having a good bit of success. Apple, on the other hand, is anemic when it comes to hosting cloud services. They have MobileMe which consists of email, file storage, photo sharing, contact and calendar syncing, etc., all for an expensive (relative to Google) annual subscription. But by reputation, MobileMe is widely considered a joke.
It appears that Apple is building up some infrastructure to start making headway in this direction. They acquired Lala streaming music service, which has led to somewhat obvious rumors that some kind of streaming iTunes is on the way. It’s also been published that they’re building a server farm in North Carolina, which could very well support a lot more cloud based services. They’ve recently updated the email web app for MobileMe, and there have been yet more rumors that MobileMe is soon to become a free service. All that said, Apple is still extremely quiet about plans for expanding their presence in the cloud.
Granted there are a host of third parties with great services, but Apple knows better than anyone the power of controlling the software for your devices. Google has lots of first party services that are getting well integrated into Android. If Apple wants to keep on top of its share of the mobile device market, they need to create some compelling new services. Google doesn’t appear to be cutting them a lot of slack. Let’s just say I hope that, come June 7th, we hear about a lot more than just a new iPhone.