iCloud Changing The Direction Of Apps

Apple announced this past June the release of their new iCloud system, a system designed to hold information for your i-products within the all powerful cloud.  Will this new system change how mobile apps are viewed and created in the future?

The concept for the iCloud is simple, use the cloud system to store information, media, and states on their servers to allow you to sync between devices.  Now you can update something from your iPhone and have that change show up on the app on your iPad.  You can also take pictures via your iPad and then bring them up on your Mac/PC via the web or save your iTunes music to the iCloud for use on the others.  No matter what you’d like to do, the wall between your devices is becoming more transparent.

Another major boon of this idea is that the line between native and web apps has been blurred.  We now have the ability to use full native functionality, since it’s a local app loaded to the device, but then be able to save the state to the web to be used on our other devices, same as a web app.

Not everything here is perfect.  Programming is still based on creating the app natively, so the joys of html 5 are still lost.  The other major factor is that you are completely locked within the apple product lines.  You will not be able to program your Android app to access the iCloud, it is built strictly for iOS products.

There are multiple articles out there that debate the ramifications of this product but two stuck out a bit to me:

• iCloud and Apple’s truth: can you win if you don’t play? by Joshua Topolsky
• Thinking Outside The Browser Box:  Why Should Apple Play By Current Internet Rules? by MG Siegler

As with all things Apple vs Not Apple, there is a bit of prejudice in each one to one side or the other, but each do bring up some good points.

Locking a system down fully to only allow access via specific hardware limits choice to simply use it or don’t.  There is no halfway point of using the system, just with a device you already have or prefer.  It would not take much to get a cloud system to work with other programs, but Apple focuses on Apple and not much farther.

On the flip side, creating a system where you know the programming of all devices being used is that you can create a product that will work with each of them every time.  You don’t have to worry about the 20 new devices that hit the market to conflict with what you made.

There are many other points that could be made, but I encourage you to research this yourself and see if it is something that will help you in creating your next iOS app.  The iCloud could be the first step in closing the gap between native and web apps.