Friday morning, John Paczkowski of Digital Daily confirmed Om’s report earlier this week that Apple acquired the domain name iCloud.com. Apple has acquired and not used domain names in the past, but if Cupertino is planning to use the iCloud brand, what should that trademark encompass?
There’s already plenty of speculation out there about what plans Apple might have in store for cloud service offerings. A revamped MobileMe complete with iOS device remote media streaming of your photos and music is one frequently mentioned possibility. Clues that a service called Photo Stream is coming to iOS have already showed up in code from Apple’s mobile operating system, and rumblings that a cloud music storage and remote streaming service is on its way are only getting louder.
Apple also probably won’t take away any of the existing service it already offers. It’s currently in the process of moving all MobileMe Calendar data to remote server storage, and cross-device email, notes and address book syncing also seem like likely candidates for any larger cloud service package from Cupertino. Indeed, AppleInsider is now reporting this is in fact the case.
But what else do you want from a cloud service offering from Apple? Are the existing MobileMe offerings even something you’re interested in? Are mobile bandwidth costs a concern? Should Apple’s cloud plans include a basic free offering, and what extras, if any, would you be willing to pay for?
Xcerion AB (Sweden)has a registered trademark, ICLOUD, for IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: Computer programs for information management, for creating spreadsheets, tables, graphs and charts and for organizing and analyzing data, for word processing, for creation and display of presentations including text and graphics, for electronic mail and instant messaging services, for calendar and meeting scheduling, for desktop publishing, for project management, for business planning, for direct mail and business financial management, for online document collaboration, storage and editing services, for viewing and organizing audio-visual content such as music, video and photos, for creating and administrating online communities and groups, for creating and maintaining personal blogs, for online sharing of any digital content, for developing and testing new computer software, and for working as an operating system for integrating and aggregating online software applications and data to run in a single user interface on one computer; computer software for use as operating systems for embedded processors for application virtual machines, process virtual machines, and platform-independent machines; software for creating a virtual machine environment, performing process virtualization, interpreting semantic application code, and abstracting network resources
IC 042. US 100 101. G & S: Providing temporary use of on-line non-downloadable software for information management, for creating spreadsheets, tables, graphs and charts and for organizing and analyzing data, for word processing, for creation and display of presentations including text and graphics, for electronic mail and instant messaging services, calendar and meeting scheduling, for desktop publishing, for project management, business planning, for direct mail and business financial management, for online document collaboration, storage and editing services, for viewing and organizing audio-visual content such as music, video and photos, for creating and administrating online communities and groups, for creating and maintaining personal blogs, for online sharing of any digital content, for developing and testing new computer software, and for integrating and aggregating existing online services. USA ® 3,744,821 based on International 970,388.
Remember when Cisco had a registered trademark for the iPhone?
First sentence says the domain was acquired. (Following the link says it was acquired from Xcerion and that their iCloud product has been rebranded CloudMe.)
I was SO disappointed to find that the domain, iCloudius.com was already taken.
Great minds think alike. As, apparently, less-than-great…
Cloud is just a buzzword for web services… I am so tired of hearing non techincal people spit this word out.
Learn from Amazon and make sure you are not under a cloud when it rains, look for sunny skies and leave the clouds behind.
I’m willing to pay for the premium service, provided that it is all-inclusive and absolutely nails iDevice and desktop integration. No more local wifi connections to transfer files, and no more tether.
I won’t be surprised to see a full backup service as part of the package – TimeMachine straight to the cloud, a la Mozy or Backblaze.
it should look like a big fluffy white cloud
It should look like tomorrow, or tuesday at the latest. I need to decide about renewing, and all this speculation has me more than a little confused. As it is, I don’t want to renew, but the minute I drop mobileme, then it comes out with magic, and I have already spent the money for something else.
Hugh
I think Apple will soon develop a virtual Mac, hosted in their new datacenter, and rent it for a monthly/annual fee. It will run Lion and you would be able to login and control it from your other Apple devices. You are going to be able to run iTunes/iPhoto on this machine to store all your media, and stream it to your Apple devices.