There are a good number of people out there that are hoping to see Apple’s LaLa acquisition and this week’s iPad launch converging into a perfect storm of cloud-based services that would have Apple debuting a new streaming music service alongside its tablet. Unfortunately, it turns out that Apple may be delaying the launch of its iTunes cloud-music feature until at least mid-2010. Instead, Apple is apparently putting its efforts into pushing the iPad as a web browsing, productivity, and movie watching device.
According to “sources,” CNET is reporting that Apple has told music industry big wigs that the iTunes streaming music service “is unlikely to be ready before the third quarter.” Apple started talking to music industry execs around the time the company took the veil of secrecy off its iPad, which sparked speculation that Steve Jobs would launch the cloud-music service in first half of 2010. These new reports indicate otherwise.
Apple recently acquired streaming music service LaLa, which, to many, seemed like the first step to a virtually limitless cloud-based iTunes music library that Apple fans could access from any wireless connection. As it stands, it’s pretty much an accepted fact that Apple will soon unleash to the world a cloud-based iTunes feature that will essentially obviate the need for massive onboard storage on devices like the iPhone and iPad.
So, all eyes are on the second half of this year for the iPad maker to really start embracing the cloud. MobileMe was a good first step in getting users to become comfortable with using web-based service, but bringing cloud-storage to iTunes is going to be huge.
[Via: CNET]