Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2011/05/31/apple_icloud_6_june/

Official: Apple to float iCloud on 6 June

Bringing sexy back to online storage? Really?

By Kelly Fiveash

Posted in SaaS, 31st May 2011 13:44 GMT

Apple's unwell CEO Steve Jobs will reveal details about the company's iCloud technology early next month.

The Cupertino boss will open Apple's annual Worldwide Developers conference on 6 June, when the iPad and iPhone maker is expected to pack in lots of details about its upcoming products.

And it's now clear that Apple couldn't resist adding its "i" prefix to the word "cloud", which is the tech world's idea of sexing up online storage. Microsoft is already a heavy user of the term, especially in recent television ad campaigns.

Cupertino described the iCloud tech as its "upcoming cloud services offering".

In April the company reportedly bought the iCloud.com domain name from Swedish company Xcerion for $4.5m. A separate report suggested recently that iCloud would be the next incarnation of MobileMe.

Music streaming could also be slotted into the mix, based on recent deals said to have been inked with at least three of the 'Big Four' record labels. Apple has said that it was readying its data centre in North Carolina to support iTunes and MobileMe.

Jobs, meanwhile, is still on medical leave so his appearance will be welcomed by the Apple faithful. Importantly, Apple isn't saying whether Jobs, who is yet to indicate when he might return to the company, will deliver the keynote speech at the conference.

Instead he'll "kick off" the shindig with a host of Apple execs.

Besides confirming the existence of iCloud, Apple said that it would also be showing off the vendor's new mobile operating system, iOS 5 and Mac OS X Lion, both of which will presumably hook into the cloudy service. ®