The iPhone and the Cloud

So, with the launch of the new iPhone 4 yesterday the big question shouldn’t be whether we’ll all get one. I’m sure we will.

While the hardware looks typically powerful, beautiful and lustworthy it seems that Apple has a major cloud problem.

Syncing with iTunes has become such an anachronistic idea that I’m surprised that it comes from Apple. If we weren’t already used to it and someone launched this today, there’s no doubt there’d be a lot of head scratching going on.

MobileMe, which is their attempt at cloud services is also pretty much terrible to use.

Ford, in contrast, just launched a pretty amazing cloud service to demonstrate what our lives will increasingly be like. It takes a Google maps address from your phone and connects it with your sat-nav via bluetooth, calculating the optimum route in the cloud. To quote their press release “Printing paper directions from a website is a relic in our digital age.”

Which, in a slightly roundabout way brings me to Microsoft.

Often written off in terms of the mobile market, there is no doubt that Microsoft let Apple, RIM and Android overtake them. As Steve Ballmer said, “we missed a whole cycle” which in technology terms is a huge statement.

However, as this article demonstrates, the new Windows Phone 7 is going to pack a major punch. Enterprise integration through Office and Exchange, the world’s largest gaming network through Xbox Live! and arguably superior entertainment software with Zune (including the definitely superior Zunepass).

The killer app, however, probably won’t be any of these directly. For the first time we’re going to see the whole Microsoft ecosystem in the hands of the consumer on their phone. And not only that, but MIcrosoft are betting on the cloud, and they are betting big.

Cloud services like the one described above from Ford (or the awesome Kin Studio) represent a level of utility we couldn’t have conceptualized even a couple of years ago, and will increasingly define what we look for in a phone.

Just like a computer, the hardware itself will quickly become something which you just don’t need to be any faster, bigger or better. Instead you’ll worry more about how useful it is and how easy it makes your life.

So while I’m sure that Apple will sell boatloads of their new phone, I’m much more interested in how the cloud will change the future.

And if Apple are going to win there, they’ll not just need a sexy new device that lets you make video calls, they’ll need to revolutionize their approach to the cloud.

(Paul Worthington)