Apple – Fixing ABC.

Reply to this post

Apple is moving to fix the basics of iCloud to ensure its future.

• Apple appears to be intent on improving the plumbing that makes a number of its Digital Life services far from best in class.
• Apple looks like it is on the verge of acquiring FoundationDB, a start-up company that uses a new design of database that makes the storage, retrieval and analysis of data much faster and more efficient.
• I presume that Apple intends to integrate this technology into iCloud and also make it the backbone of HealthKit and HomeKit.
• iCloud looks good on the surface but its performance, stability and reliability leave a lot to be desired.
• Users constantly report issues with synchronisation and back-up of devices as well as increasingly slow back-ups of their data to iCloud.
• Part of the reason for this is that synchronisation and back-up look like very simple tasks but they are fiendishly difficult to get right.
• iCloud has not been around long enough and has not been used in the enterprise where much higher standards are required to be selected.
• Furthermore this type of software is not in Apple’s DNA which combined with its relative youth make it inferior to most of its competitors.
• OneDrive is a much clumsier and less fun user experience, but because it is based on SharePoint it offers great reliability and enterprise class performance.
• RFM research indicates that Apple is aiming to differentiate its devices in the long-term with HealthKit, Home Kit and Apple Pay.
• If Apple can make its devices the hub that collects all of a user’s health and home data, it can offer functionality that none of its competitors will be able to do.
• In that instance it will have achieved differentiation despite remaining weak in its own Digital Life services and consequently it will be able to preserve its hardware margins.
• However, underneath this needs to be software plumbing and databases that are rock solid with fantastic performance.
• Failure to fix the problems of iCloud will probably bring these long-term strategies crashing down and this is what I think is sitting behind Apple’s move to acquire FoundationDB.
• Google and Microsoft have nothing to worry about for the moment but they should be using the opportunity to improve the user friendliness of their offerings before Apple gets its house in order.
• Microsoft remains my top choice in the ecosystem, followed by Google with Apple staying in third place.