The iCloud slogan "It Just Works" could soon turn into "It Just Works Until It Doesn't". Find out why inside.

Apple enthusiasts have been unusually enthusiastic this week, courtesy of Steve Jobs' unveiling of iOS 5 with iCloud on Monday. TechCrunch's MG Siegler today explained how magical the iCloud aspect of iOS 5 is, basically concluding that "It Just Works" as the Apple Chief himself claimed on stage during the unveiling. We think Steve Jobs unveiled iCloud in a way that was second to none, but how it will impact the average iPhone user's current experience is one of the aspects that matters now.

Steve Jobs made it perfectly clear that he wants every iPhone user to take advantage of the iCloud, and subsequently wants as many as possible to go ahead and buy iPads and Apple TVs. We like that approach, because it'll enable the company to offer solutions at an entirely different level than what's been the case in the past. However, this approach requires certain scrutiny. Let's first jump straight to a common cloud computing issue.

If we understood Steve Jobs correctly, the iCloud has its limitations when it comes to how open it can be. For cloud computing in general, shared resources enable developers and companies to get the feeling that only the sky is the limit, as long as their operations are in line with certain usage terms. The downside from a technical perspective is that if something goes seriously wrong, end-users across a large amount of apps and services will be affected.

Let's imagine that iCloud functionality becomes a key part of third-party iOS applications down the road. What kind of assurance can Apple provide developers when it comes to the operational aspect of iCloud? The truth is that Apple can't assure anything beyond what anybody else can assure. "It Just Works" could easily turn into "It Just Works Until It Doesn't", and there'll be no quick, temporary fix such as holding your iPhone the right way. Let's not forget that iOS is known for working smoothly on a detailed level.

Additionally, how will iCloud data transfers be dealt with? iMessage is a part of that aspect too. For those thinking that iMessage will kill BlackBerry Messenger, BBM is a separate subscription service that doesn't affect the rest of a user's service plans.

Let's say a user owns an iPhone with a small data plan. And let's be real here, an increasing amount of iPhone users have small data plans. Will people more often hit data speed limits? How would that affect usage of iOS apps in general? Sure, one can always blame the carriers for data issues, but then again, carriers invest more in infrastructure than most people realize. If you and I aren't willing to pay for that infrastructure, iCloud as well as iMessage wouldn't make sense in the first place.

At the end of the day, Apple enthusiasts have plenty of reasons to be enthusiastic. However, just because Steve Jobs says that "It Just Works" doesn't mean that the iCloud will turn out to be a magical aspect of iOS. The iCloud isn't a brilliant multi-touch gesture or a top-notch touchscreen display, it's an aspect of the iOS experience that could have a big impact on end-users, developers and companies that all rely on the iOS ecosystem. Words like "automatically" and "push" primarily aim to glorify something that probably requires serious attention, viable guidelines and careful usage.

Post by wakjawa78