Apple Announces iCloud

Pop over to iCloud.com today and you’ll see a doomed web page. The domain, which redirects to Xcerion’sCloudMe software, is sitting on some prime real estate, namely Apple’s newiCloud service.

In a short release, Apple confirmed the existence and name:

Apple® CEO Steve Jobs and a team of Apple executives will kick off the company’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote address on Monday, June 6 at 10:00 a.m. At the keynote, Apple will unveil its next generation software – Lion, the eighth major release of Mac OS® X; iOS 5, the next version of Apple’s advanced mobile operating system which powers iPad®, iPhone® and iPod touch®; and iCloud®, Apple’s upcoming cloud services offering.

We’ve been hearing about the potential cloud services for months now and it seems the stars have finally aligned. The MobileMe service recently received some considerable upgrades to improve performance and stability and there has been oodles of talk about a potential music service in the cloud similar to Rdio or Spotify. That we now know it’s called iCloud, officially, is just icing on the cake.

What will iCloud include? It will probably be a considerable revamp of the Me.com services including calendar and email syncing. As TUAW notes, many parts of MobileMe will probably be available for free leaving us to wonder what the rest of the service will include.

We’ve also discovered that Apple is signing partners to offer what amounts to a mirrored version of your iTunes database, a service that will be considerably improved over current “locker”models used by Amazon and Google. However, there are currently plenty of those cloud-based sharing services on offer, which suggests Apple may have a trick or two up its sleeve.

We’ll be there live on Monday June 6 but until then get out your prophesying hats and start prophesying in comments!