Apple has been showing a little bit more of it's intentions on iCloud in today's keynote.
I've been thinking about this for a while but I think IMO today helped to solidify it.
To Apple iCloud means more than just a service, IT IS A PRODUCT just like their MBP's and iMacs and will most likely almost totally replace them. I mean this quite literally. Technology is making it's maneuver towards a being simply a screen through which your processing technological work, play, etc. is managed. We're seeing this with the iPad, MBP Retina and potentially iTV, what they really are (Well at least for the iPad) at the very soul of the product is a screen through which you are free do engage with however you choose, create, manipulate, watch, etc. Technology is at it's best when it is invisible, when it's out of your way, letting you engage with it naturally as you would any other part of your reality.
Likewise all we as consumers really need (or will need) is this screen in our physical presence, there is no real need for a corporeal element of your computing at your physical location. Well you may say we need a processor, RAM, a GPU, etc. Well we do but it doesn't need to be where we are, whereas the screen does. The screen is the medium by which technology can communicate with us in a way we understand. What I mean by this is that we could outsource our processing outside of our physical location (as the cloud is attempting to do at least with data in this stage) as internet connections get faster and faster and are able to transmit more and more data.
I think we will begin to see this more as metal phases out as the new design material of our times and glass begins to phase in. Glass is obviously the material many (the best IMO) screens are made of but also it is just more suited for our lives. It can have whatever we want projected onto it (a sunrise to wake up to, the weather, a picture of our family, the contents of our refrigerator, act as a mirror) and it's base state unlike metal which is pretty to look at when off and serves a purpose as a rigid body but ultimately wastes space, (although I think Apple's secured rights to liquid metal technology helps glass compete on this) is also perfectly suited for our lives acting transparent so that we can look through it and it doesn't inhibit us but actually instead enhances. Think putting someone behind it and photoshopping on a direct image of their live face without the need of cameras, or live visual FX previews without using the processor, or a variety of other potential uses. The one thing that is for sure is it doesn't waste space when not used like metal does.
Computing will likely be like just another utility such as electricity, you pay for what you use, if you are a web browser or word processing user than you will benefit from this as you will be able to pay a very small monthly bill and never have to tinker with your machine, fix it, get it taken in, buy the latest tech, and most of all put up the hefty fee up front for a machine that is always one day closer to the grave. All of that is done for you. Likewise however you will also benefit if you are a heavy user as you will have access to some of the most powerful computers in the world much more powerful and able to quickly process things than your home computer could ever hope to be and you will only have to pay for the moments you need it. Think about it if you are rendering a very complex 3D scene on a top of the line machine now you have to put an initial investment into that machine of at least a few thousand, in some cases it can be close to $10,000 if you include dual monitors etc. it can even get more expensive. However you don't need all that power ALL the time. With computing as a utility you could get a more powerful machine handle your render and pay more during that period but than when you don't need that power you're not paying that much for it. Additionally another huge benefit will be portability, anywhere with a screen will be YOUR HOME COMPUTER once you log on to your iCloud account voila there natively in Honolulu, you're office, home, car, the list goes on and on is YOUR very own desktop always ready to be used wherever you are. Desktop-laptop all goes out of the window.
Now I think Apple left subtle clues today that suggest they are thinking of this as well. iCloud has been heavily emphasized by them because it is their strategy for the DECADE. One cannot overestimate it's importance. Their fidelity to the rounded rectangle on the iCloud homescreen since it's inception can be attributed to just a consistent and beautiful (IMO) design across the board, however smaller things I think hint at this strategy like the storage of all your documents with ability to edit on the site itself (at least for pages, not sure about other documents). They seem to be slowly introducing us to the concept of being able to do computing on the web and naturalizing it to us by introducing feature by feature slowly creating a digital clone of our digital life on iCloud so that we will get to the point we realize we don't need our physical computer anymore, just a screen to communicate with iCloud.
What do you all think? I'll come in and clean this up in a few minutes for readability/organization.
I've been thinking about this for a while but I think IMO today helped to solidify it.
To Apple iCloud means more than just a service, IT IS A PRODUCT just like their MBP's and iMacs and will most likely almost totally replace them. I mean this quite literally. Technology is making it's maneuver towards a being simply a screen through which your processing technological work, play, etc. is managed. We're seeing this with the iPad, MBP Retina and potentially iTV, what they really are (Well at least for the iPad) at the very soul of the product is a screen through which you are free do engage with however you choose, create, manipulate, watch, etc. Technology is at it's best when it is invisible, when it's out of your way, letting you engage with it naturally as you would any other part of your reality.
Likewise all we as consumers really need (or will need) is this screen in our physical presence, there is no real need for a corporeal element of your computing at your physical location. Well you may say we need a processor, RAM, a GPU, etc. Well we do but it doesn't need to be where we are, whereas the screen does. The screen is the medium by which technology can communicate with us in a way we understand. What I mean by this is that we could outsource our processing outside of our physical location (as the cloud is attempting to do at least with data in this stage) as internet connections get faster and faster and are able to transmit more and more data.
I think we will begin to see this more as metal phases out as the new design material of our times and glass begins to phase in. Glass is obviously the material many (the best IMO) screens are made of but also it is just more suited for our lives. It can have whatever we want projected onto it (a sunrise to wake up to, the weather, a picture of our family, the contents of our refrigerator, act as a mirror) and it's base state unlike metal which is pretty to look at when off and serves a purpose as a rigid body but ultimately wastes space, (although I think Apple's secured rights to liquid metal technology helps glass compete on this) is also perfectly suited for our lives acting transparent so that we can look through it and it doesn't inhibit us but actually instead enhances. Think putting someone behind it and photoshopping on a direct image of their live face without the need of cameras, or live visual FX previews without using the processor, or a variety of other potential uses. The one thing that is for sure is it doesn't waste space when not used like metal does.
Computing will likely be like just another utility such as electricity, you pay for what you use, if you are a web browser or word processing user than you will benefit from this as you will be able to pay a very small monthly bill and never have to tinker with your machine, fix it, get it taken in, buy the latest tech, and most of all put up the hefty fee up front for a machine that is always one day closer to the grave. All of that is done for you. Likewise however you will also benefit if you are a heavy user as you will have access to some of the most powerful computers in the world much more powerful and able to quickly process things than your home computer could ever hope to be and you will only have to pay for the moments you need it. Think about it if you are rendering a very complex 3D scene on a top of the line machine now you have to put an initial investment into that machine of at least a few thousand, in some cases it can be close to $10,000 if you include dual monitors etc. it can even get more expensive. However you don't need all that power ALL the time. With computing as a utility you could get a more powerful machine handle your render and pay more during that period but than when you don't need that power you're not paying that much for it. Additionally another huge benefit will be portability, anywhere with a screen will be YOUR HOME COMPUTER once you log on to your iCloud account voila there natively in Honolulu, you're office, home, car, the list goes on and on is YOUR very own desktop always ready to be used wherever you are. Desktop-laptop all goes out of the window.
Now I think Apple left subtle clues today that suggest they are thinking of this as well. iCloud has been heavily emphasized by them because it is their strategy for the DECADE. One cannot overestimate it's importance. Their fidelity to the rounded rectangle on the iCloud homescreen since it's inception can be attributed to just a consistent and beautiful (IMO) design across the board, however smaller things I think hint at this strategy like the storage of all your documents with ability to edit on the site itself (at least for pages, not sure about other documents). They seem to be slowly introducing us to the concept of being able to do computing on the web and naturalizing it to us by introducing feature by feature slowly creating a digital clone of our digital life on iCloud so that we will get to the point we realize we don't need our physical computer anymore, just a screen to communicate with iCloud.
What do you all think? I'll come in and clean this up in a few minutes for readability/organization.
