MATT BOLTON…
The future of seamless experiences is the cloud, and that may require some changes at Apple
Apple products have always been about improving the experience. Even the Apple I, with its homebrew origins, was unusually user-friendly by being a complete box that needed just a keyboard and display, and available in a built form. The exact nature of the experience changes over time – from the addition of a GUI in the Macintosh to the “digital hub” of the iMac and iLife combination, and beyond – but the core is always making things friendlier, and reducing friction.
Right now, the core of the experience is shifting again to the cloud. You’re probably thinking that I’m an idiot, and that iCloud is already at the centre of things, but I’d say you’re only half right. I think we’ve barely begun to see how the cloud will be the lifeblood of tech experiences in the future.
Right now, it’s just a storage service for the most part. It stores data from your phone to back it up, and stores your settings and documents to push them out to your devices. It makes your devices feel personal by giving them your data, but it does little itself. It has all this information in it, but nothing to do with it. That will change.
Consider Siri. This is actually one area where the cloud is not so dumb: Siri’s processing and responses happen in the cloud. Except that it’s still reliant on information stored on your device to give personal responses, despite a lot of that information also existing in the cloud, where you’d think Siri should have access to it. When it performs a task for you, using iMessage or other services, it does that through your iPhone or Mac, too. Despite requiring the internet, it’s an awfully offline-focused system.
In the future, Apple will surely be aiming to remove the device and offline storage from the equation. Siri will be able to access your information that’s stored on Apple servers, and run processes through apps that are part of its repertoire, not your iPhone’s (much like how Amazon’s Alexa assistant in its Echo devices works with third-party services). This will divorce Siri from its hardware constrictions, which blows open the possibilities. In just a couple of years, you could have AirPods paired to an Apple Watch that includes a 5G internet connection. Ask Siri anything about your personal information, or to perform tasks, and it will be able. No iPhone required. One day, even the Watch part may become unnecessary.
This is just one aspect of the cloud-first world. It will also become even more central to more traditional elements, such as Mac apps. But for Apple to truly take advantage of it, it needs to reflect this in its structure. iCloud specialists can’t be their own group, divided off – they need to be working at the heart of every software team Apple has. The cloud is no longer a feature to be added to an experience: it’s the foundation.
The cloud stores info, but does nothing with it. That will change