Apple: Does Steve Jobs Need A Cloud Computing Strategy?

Here’s something worth thinking about: While just about every high-tech company hypes cloud computing opportunities, Apple has remained fairly silent, dare I say, apprehensive about using “cloud computing” jargon. But Apple does have some cloud services. So where is Apple headed as the rest of the world moves in to the ether? Read on…

To be fair, Apple has their own cloud platform. There’s MobileMe which provides a ‘home base’ away from home, so long as you have a web browser anywhere. You can check your email, share out photos, upload documents, sync your addresses, and use the “find my iPhone” feature. It’s nice, but it’s not too robust.

But is that all Apple will provide? Clearly, the focus lately has been on the iOS devices, which are sort of cloud devices in themselves. But 16GB isn’t a big as it used to be these days. What happens when your iPhone just can’t hold all your stuff? Steve Jobs seems to think that streaming media is the way to go — which is why Apple hasn’t supported Blu-ray yet as a standard.

So streaming means cloud, right? And that could mean, well, streaming iTunes, right? It’s not too far-fetched. Apple acquired streaming music service LaLa.com in December 2009, which did just that. And BoyGeniusReport.com says that they’ve got the scoop from inside sources with Apple’s new cloud strategy laid out…

It could be brilliant. Buy anything on your wireless Apple device, and it syncs back home for backup. Then, essentially, keep all your apps local, and keep all your media in the cloud. It makes 16GB seem a lot bigger, plus, a record of your purchases will always be kept, so if you lose the ‘physical’ data of that song, you can always have it in the cloud for streaming later.

As an owner of a 16GB iPad and a 16GB SD card for my Droid — I’ve been impressed with Pandora on both platforms. It would be nice to have my own music at my disposal like that as well without feeling the crunch for videos, apps and photos.

But what do you think? Do you think Apple will take some of the steps above? And do those steps really equate to a cloud strategy?

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