Look into Apple iCloud, a fierce rival to the Amazon Cloud Player

The iCloud

Apple iCloud may potentially raise large threats to cloud based music services of Amazon and Google. Apple recently announced its cloud based media service at the company’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) 2011 in San Francisco. Though not an exclusive cloud service for music playing, Apple iCloud contains a special feature for it, called, iTunes Match. Some tech analysts foresee that Apple may nourish up its cloud computing platform so as to make it competitive one among the fast growing cloud based music services like Amazon Cloud Player and Google Music.

Functionality

Apple iCloud stores data like documents, photos, music, contacts and bookmarks into the company’s servers. You may not have to push any button to store your data on Apple iCloud. It will automatically get uploaded to the Apple’s much-anticipated cloud service, which will be open for public in the fall. With Apple iCloud, working on an iDevice will be more comfortable. You will be able to retrieve any of your valuable data from any iOS device by signing into iCloud. It is called cloud computing.

What to expect Apple iCloud will have a number of incredible features in association with many other Apple services. The cloud computing service meant for all iOS devices such as iPhone, iPad and iPod touch and Mac OS X computers, will be blessed with Apple App Store’s 425,000 apps, and the features of latest iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion. The latest Mac OS version comes with around 250 features including a service named AirDrop for file sharing on Wi-Fi connectivity and enhanced touch-control options.

Similarly, Apple iOS 5, the latest update of Apple’s famous mobile OS, highlights stunning features like Notification Center, iMessage, Newsstand and many others. A new version of iTunes with special offers for iCloud service will also appear in the market. There will be a seamless integration between iCloud and the new iTunes. Anyway, as far as media-related features are concerned, Apple iCloud could compete with earlier rivals like Amazon Music Player and Google Music.

What not to expect

Apple iCloud is not meant, basically, for music playing in the form of Amazon Music Player and Google Music. It is in fact an enhanced version of Apple’s MobileMe, a service for storing contacts, emails and bookmarks on cloud. Besides making it an exclusive platform for music services, Apple has designed iCloud so as to help users store data such as images from iOS devices, applications and documents. Apple iCloud also lacks a music streaming service like Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music Beta. The service will only help you download music to an iOS or Mac system.

Comparison between Apple's iCloud and Amazon Cloud Player

A comparison between Amazon Cloud Player and Apple iCloud is not significant at all, because the latter is not prepared for complete music services, while the former is. However, this comparison is made between Amazon Cloud Player and Apple iCloud’s music aspect in link with Apple iTunes. And once added with an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, we can simply state that Apple iCloud can really challenge Amazon Cloud Player and other similar services. In six various music-related criteria below, Apple iCloud can be seen as the winner over Amazon Cloud Player.

• File types supported

Apple iCloud: Apple iCloud supports a number of music files such as MP3, AIFF, WAV, MPEG-4, AAC file types. Meanwhile, Amazon Cloud Player only supports two types of music files and they are MP3, AAC.

Winner: Apple iCloud

• Create playlists/auto playlists

Apple iCloud: With the help of Apple iTunes, we can create playlists and auto playlists on Apple iCloud. Amazon Cloud Player: There is an option to create playlist on Amazon Music Player, but no method to generate an auto playlist.

Winner: Apple iCloud

• Upload music not purchased in the service

Apple iCloud: The Apple cloud service has a function of uploading music not purchased in the service for $25/year Amazon Cloud Player: Amazon Cloud Player can upload music not purchased in the service.

Winner: Apple iCloud

• Price for extra storage

Apple iCloud: The Apple cloud service provides unlimited iTunes storage for $24.95/year. Amazon Cloud Player: Amazon pays $20/year for 20 GB for extra storage of data. Winner: Apple iCloud

• Free storage allotment

Apple iCloud: Apple avails only 5 GB for free storage for a user. Amazon Cloud Player: Amazon Cloud Player also has the limit at 5 GB, but there is a free storage option for songs purchased on Amazon. Winner: Amazon Cloud Player

• Price &Availability

Apple iCloud: There is no price for the service and it is free for iTunes purchases and is available worldwide. Amazon Cloud Player: Amazon Cloud Player is totally free and public for every Internet user. Winner: Amazon Cloud Player

After having made the comparison above, we can conclude that the Apple iCloud undoubtedly is the winner and should automatically be a better choice if you are consumer looking for the service that reaps more benefit to you music needs.