With the purchase of music streaming service Lala and the continuing investment in large scale data centers, Apple appears to be building the infrastructure necessary to support a cloud based iTunes.
A cloud based iTunes could mean that your actual media files (music, movies, etc.) are stored on Apple’s own computers and are steamed to your web connected devices as you need them.
Let’s take a quick look at some pros and cons.
Pro – Storage Efficiency
Storing the same music file on your laptop, Apple TV, iPhone and iPod is an inefficient waste of storage space. For all of the millions of copies of a popular song that get purchased and stored locally across iTunes devices around the world, that same file could just be stored once (on Apple’s computer) and streamed to the owners as they need them. This would decrease the total storage needs of user’s devices significantly.
Pro – Access
With a cloud based storage model, iTunes users could access their media files from other computers and devices all around the world. With a quick login on Apple’s website, you would be able to access your playlists and pickup your movie right where you left off.
Con – Bandwidth & Internet Availability
If you don’t have internet, you don’t have your media. This is one of the biggest current limitations to cloud based computing initiatives. As wireless coverage starts to continues to improve, this may not be much of an issue in the future, however currently there are plenty of places (subways, buildings, my commute, etc.) where wireless coverage is spotty.
Con – The Ownership Issue
People like to own and control the things that they buy (even in digital format.) Innovation that make users feel connected to the media that they own in the cloud will really help sell the concept.
The move to the cloud is already well underway. Facebook is a perfect example of a cloud based service that has succeeded in making their users feel ownership of their non-locally stored data. Google and Amazon are already pushing the envelope of creating apps and services around the cloud model.
Apple is smart to be investing (and innovating) in the cloud space, while at the same time continuing to keep one leg in the current, locally stored model. I see them first providing the could based access as an add-on to the current model to test the waters and improve the service before transitioning away from locally stored media.
