Apple is understood to have completed work on its online music storage locker ahead of search giant Google. As a result, iTunes users will soon be able to store their songs in the cloud and access them wherever they are.
It is understood that Google’s efforts at creating a cloud locker have, surprisingly, stalled. It was planning a Google Music service with a cloud locker for music that would support the forthcoming Honeycomb mobile operating system.
The new Apple service will go up against Amazon’s Cloud Drive services, aimed at Android phone users, which is understood to have raised the ire of the music industry since Amazon launched the service before getting licences and permission from the music industry.
In Apple’s case, it is understood music labels are hoping to secure deals before the service is launched, according to Reuters.
Apple’s cloud ambitions extend to TV and video
It is believed, however, that Apple’s cloud ambitions may go further than music and include TV and video services that will rival Google’s YouTube subsidiary and services like Netflix and Hulu.
The strategy – aimed at bolstering its massive iOS installed base and supporting the growing popularity of its Apple TV technology – will hinge on Apple’s data centre plans, especially around a new data centre that is going live in North Carolina, with further data centres planned for Europe and the US.
The data centres will then be used to deliver video to iOS and Apple TV devices.
