And Gruber nails it:
“Think of this model as like IMAP for iTunes content — it would also allow multiple devices (computer, iPhone, iPad) to remain in sync over the air, rather than the current model where devices need to be tethered via USB to your computer in order to sync. I think this would be fantastic. As it stands now, iTunes customers are responsible for the data integrity of their purchases.”
But then again, let’s look at the whole picture and assume Apple plans to integrate iTunes with the cloud even for mobile devices (and considering Apple’s policy regarding consistency between different experiences, I don’t see why they shouldn’t do so.),bringing over the air syncing for apps and music streaming. Basically, iTunes. There’s this big elephant in the room once again, AT&T. How are they going to deal with that? Perhaps they’re simply procrastinating the cloud waiting for AT&T to fix their networks? The easiest solution would be to offer the cloud service under wifi only, but that would be a huge limitation. And considering that they wanted the iPad to have a 3G connection (even if many people swear they’ll buy the wifi only version) available at launch, I don’t think we’re gonna see a half sized, desktop-only cloud service. It’s the full thing or nothing.
But what if Apple is thinking about syncing user’s data and preferences over the cloud, and not the files themselves?
