Apple needs to stop talking and start delivering on cloud services

[Rogifan]

From The Verge:

If Apple truly cares about our privacy then it should stop talking about how important it is and start building superior cloud-based services we want to use — then it can protect us. That's how Dad did it, that's how America does it, and it's worked out pretty well so far.

And John Gruber's response which I thought was really good:

Apple needs to provide best-of-breed services and privacy, not second-best-but-more-private services. Many people will and do choose convenience and reliability over privacy. Apple’s superior position on privacy needs to be the icing on the cake, not their primary selling point.

When Cook says Google is scanning your photos to sell them off for advertising purposes he's spreading FUD plain and simple. The fact is most people probably wouldn't pay to use Facebook or many of Google's services. They're conditioned to be fine paying for a physical thing but not wanting to pay for software or a service on the internet. So if Apple really cares about privacy, provide superior cloud services and market the hell out of them. Less talk and more action. Cook should poach a top notch cloud executive from Microsoft, Google or Amazon and park iCloud, Siri and Maps underneath him/her. Eddy Cue would still have his hands full with iTunes/Beats, AppStore, TV and Pay.

 

[Rogifan]

Another blistering (but accurate) critique from Fortune:

http://t.co/BrvBGTlLOe

 

[keysofanxiety]

I agree, I know a lot of people say that all cloud services have issues, but Apple have like 200 billion in offshore money alone. They're raking in so much money, you have to wonder how much is being put back into the company for development/maintenance. Coupled with some disappointing hardware updates that seems to take a step backwards (namely that POS 1.4GHz Mac Mini/iMac & lower performing Retina iMac), I'm getting a little disheartened with this company. If they adhere to what they claim to stand for, in tandem with the ridiculous amount of money they have to play with, they should really be raising the bottom benchmark on their products to be much better (SSD on all machines would be a good start).

Heh, I guess this went from a rant about Apple's cloud services to Apple in general

 

[Rogifan]

Another great critique of Cook/Apple's short-sightedness on this whole privacy thing. There are trade-offs when it comes to privacy and consumers have shown they will give up sliver of privacy for convenience, better services and better user experience.

http://bgr.com/2015/06/03/apple-tim-cook-google-privacy/

 

[roadbloc]

I've always maintained that Apple's cloud services are complete garbage in comparison to their competition. Other than the name, not much has changed since iTools/.Mac. The iTunes service (NOT including Match) is probably the only reliable cloud service Apple have ever made. And even then, downloads are often painfully slow.

 

[Rogifan]

I've always maintained that Apple's cloud services are complete garbage in comparison to their competition. Other than the name, not much has changed since iTools/.Mac. The iTunes service (NOT including Match) is probably the only reliable cloud service Apple have ever made. And even then, downloads are often painfully slow.

I don't know if someone from Apple PR saw this speech before Cook gave it but if they did they should have told him to rewrite it. But it's almost like Google photos app gets released to great reviews and Cook decided to take the broad swipe to try and change the subject. Yet it didn't work as it just highlighted Apple's weakness in this space. And he's tying Apple's hands as it will be hard for them to bring new services (like something similar to Google Now) without looking like hypocrites.