Couldn’t agree more:

http://notes.kateva.org/2011/06/nimbophobia-4-more-reasons-to-fear.html

The antidote: Splarchive.

Checkout this review of Splarchive at:

iCloud vs. the Web

There is apparently no meaningful web interface to iCloud. This means:

- I can’t access iCloud with anything but an Apple device running Apple sanctioned apps.

- The web truly makes knowing where data is located irrelevant. There are lots of caching schemes to enhance performance but I’m not left in a position where I need to pick and choose the stuff that gets synched to iOS devices and what stays in my iCloud. Synching makes it easier to get your stuff on multiple devices, but you still need to think about it. With web access, caching and streaming, I really never have to think about where my data is.

- Should Applications own Data? I want tools to create content that I can use any way I might desire and ultimately with whatever tools/apps I choose. Under the guise of getting rid of the file system we now have as many siloed file systems as we have apps. This is part of the price we pay for an app-centric world.

- Apple apparently doesn’t like ads anymore.

Cloud Patterns

Now that we have pretty clear pictures of cloud strategies from the major players:

• Amazon
• Ends: Sell more of anything via the ubiquitous Amazon store.
• Means: Pure cloud strategy delivers Amazon to any and all devices, via web and app as well as Amazon’s own hardware.
• Apple
• Ends: Sell more Apple hardware.
• Means: Use the cloud as a mechanism that strongly encourages consumers to buy Apple hardware by making the Apple cloud only work with Apple hardware. All Apple apps – essentially no web. This strategy pushes Apple to an all synchronization, no streaming strategy as well.
• Facebook
• Ends: Expand and keep people in the Facebook private web, where there will be fewer reasons to venture beyond its wall over time and where customers are sold stuff and advertised to.
• Means: Leverage the Facebook ID everywhere – web and apps, but so far not including their own hardware.
• Google
• Ends: Make everything free by selling ads on it. Expand the web and make it entirely searchable.
• Means: Be ubiquitous with the web and apps. Provide free, ad supported platforms and services wherever possible to starve the competition and enable Google ads. Do some hardware to seed and promote the platforms.
• Microsoft
• Ends: Stay relevant.
• Means: Leverage Windows, Office and Xbox.

It’s really fascinating to watch these internet battles over time. The “choke-point” is constantly evolving from the ISP (AOL), to Directory (Yahoo), to Browser(Netscape/Microsoft) to what we’re seeing described above. The only lesson I can derive is that as technology inevitably evolves, leadership transitions to those who can momentarily grab the reigns through a combination of delivering perceived value, combined with ample cunning and ruthlessness.

Splarchive competition heats up

Well, recent cloud bursts at Amazon and Sony demonstrate again how important it is to have a Plan B when it comes to pretty much everything including the cloud (FWIW – Splarchive makes a fine Plan B in and for the cloud).

Then we see that Apple is going to compete with us in the “read it later” space with “reading list”.

Uh, bring it?

Monthly Chrome

Rumblings today that Google may be about to start selling Chrome netbooks/tablets for $10/mo. to $20/mo. for a couple of years is a game-changer. Getting hardware into people’s hands inexpensively has worked out quite nicely for the mobile and cable businesses. It’s been tried in computers but obviously never succeeded.

Google has been pretty good with their other OS, Android about not oppressively shaping the experience. My guess is that this will cause pretty sizable headaches for competitors.

Digital Antiquities

There’s a great show at PBS called Digital Antiquities (part of an interesting series called FutureStates) about a future where it’s really hard to get at your old digital stuff. A topic that happens to be very near and dear to our hearts at Splarchive. Check it out here. Excellent filmmaking indeed by @jpchan.