There has to be a Cloud angle to every technology story these days, so I thought I'd take a stab at it for the iPad!
Apple needs large Cloud enabled data-centres to support the iPad. Why?
The iPad could quite possibly be for many people the only computer they need; well, not this iPad but whatever comes after the iPad. But even this one will be good enough for some people but if the iPad is the only computer they need and have; they are going to need somewhere to keep all the content that they consume on the iPad and this is rapidly going to exceed the internal storage requirements of the iPad. So I expect fairly shortly that you will be able to back-up and store all the content that you consume, produce in Apple's cloud. I also expect that you will be able to share that content within your household; so if Mum, Dad and kids all have an iPad; then they will all be able to access the content bought.
One of things that has stopped me using iTunes to buy content is the idea that if I manage to trash my iTunes environment; I will end up purchasing all that content again. I am expecting Apple to allow me to back-up my iTunes content to the Cloud for a reasonable monthly subscription. And then I expect that Amazon et al will follow suit.
So there you go, there's the obligatory cloud angle. I have some some thoughts on the device itself but they will wait.
In an effort to “practice what I project”, I got a refurb MacBook Air and am using it as a Cloud Machine. For a 128 GB SSD, I’ve got more than 100 GB left. The only concession I’ve made for apps is MS Office. Google’s just not ready yet.
iPad is interesting, even if it’s not a machine that can run Office, Photoshop, etc. I don’t want to play instant analysis and claim success or disappointment, but I think the trajectory is 100% on target. Cloud is happening, and Apple is preparing.
Interesting take and I agree that without some sort of infrastructure as you suggest iPad and varients won’t see wide adoption.
On your iTunes experience… middle of last year my son trashed his entire iTunes collection of music, audio books and movies. He called Apple, pleaded his case and Apple let him redownload all the content he (well, I) had purchased (by the way, I added up the value of that content when purchased – made me realize how lucrative iTunes is). So clearly they have the capability – they just prefer not to tout it, which makes some sense when I should take the care and caution to perform my own backup of the content. But in an iPad world, this has to be available as a carte blanche service/feature.
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