Apple Inc has launched iCloud service that would automatically store photos, songs and other files on servers at Apple’s data centres and sync them with a customer’s gadgets. For example, a photo taken with an iPhone would appear within seconds on a user’s iPad, iPod Touch, Apple TV set-top box and any personal computer running iTunes.
The move steps up competition with Google Inc’s Android and other mobile-device rivals by making it harder to switch away from Apple products. If iCloud works as advertised—something Apple’s previous online products haven’t always achieved—the convenience of no longer needing to upload, download or sync files may lead many customers to buy exclusively from Apple.
iCloud could increase Apple’s market value by $100 billion to $500 billion, due to the service’s effect on hardware sales and purchases of songs, movies and other media. The Cupertino, California-based company is already the world’s most valuable business, with capitalisation of $371.1 billion.
iCloud would be included free, along with an update of Apple’s iOS mobile software. The service marks Apple’s most ambitious effort to expand its internet-based operations beyond the basic iTunes store, which doles out songs, TV shows, audio books and mobile apps to one device at a time.
iCloud comprises a handful of separate, free services. One, called Photo Stream, automatically stores a user’s 1,000 most recently taken pictures and syncs them with a customer’s iOS devices. Another ensures all the machines have the latest version of memos and spreadsheets created with Apple’s iWork applications.
Apple would charge $25 for a service called iTunes Match, which lets music fans automatically sync songs in their iTunes library that weren’t purchased from Apple.
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