iCloud and What It Means For the ebook Revolution

Steve Jobs giving the keynote at the WWDC 2011 Monday

I just finished watching the Apple Keynote at the WWDC 2011 that was streamed on Apple's website and I must say that I am very excited about iCloud and what its potential impact on the ebook revolution might mean. To put it as simply as possible, iCloud is a new way offered by Apple to scan and mirror the content (documents, photos, music, etc.,) of the company's 200 million iOS devices that have been sold around the world using a digital locker, or 'server in the sky.' Using the server farms at the company's massive new data center in Maiden, North Carolina, the company will begin rolling out this new service officially in the fall.

Now before all of you Windows trolls start going on about how Dropbox was first to the party, and that this isn't really anything new, hold your fire and just bear with me for a moment to consider the implications of this, especially for indie writers. iCloud uploads any document that you're working on to the 'cloud' and then pushes that document back to any other iOS devices you may have and updates the document on those other devices, whether iPads, iPhones or Macs as you update it. This means that if you're writing a book on a PC or Mac, and feel the need to do some edits on the go, then you can just pick up your iPhone or iPod Touch or what have you and complete your edit secure in the knowledge that it is identical to the document that you just put away when you left your computer. No more emailing a document to yourself and, for God's sake, renaming the document so that it doesn't get confused with any earlier versions of the same document. 

A solution like this would be a Godsend to indie writers like myself. When I was writing The Abattoir, on a Mac using Apple Pages, it was a pain to have to do exactly what I just described. I would have to export it to an epub document, then transfer it to iTunes, and sync that with my phone. Then whether I was on the subway or at a Starbucks or wherever, I could perform edits and send them to myself via email. It was an OK solution, but it also involved a lot of unnecessary hassles as well. Now, with iCloud, and the newly released Apple Pages for iOS, those problems will be over. Even now, I'm busy writing some of the sequel to The Abattoir on my phone using Pages, and it is a remarkably fluid experience. When iCloud arrives, the solution will be complete. I can write and edit both on the phone and on the Mac without having to worry about this or that version and all of the frustration that comes along with it. 

When you add free to the equation, as Apple is apparently doing, it's a solution that is only that much sweeter. I could kiss Steve Jobs for this. (Is it me, or did his voice sound a lot weaker than in previous events?) Note to self, say a prayer for the man, he did not look good today. As one who has admired him for a long time, it saddens me to see him in that condition. At any rate, I am really excited about what iCloud and products like Pages for iPhone has to offer to us indies out there struggling to produce quality work without pulling our hair out in the process. Apple made things just a little bit easier for those of us fortunate enough to use their products, and for that, I'm thankful.