While Google (GOOG) and Amazon beat Apple (AAPL) to the starting line in the emerging online music market by announcing their own programs in recent weeks, the Cupertino company is expected to instantly race past its competitors this morning when CEO Steve Jobs launches Apple's own service, dubbed iCloud.
Just after 10 a.m., Jobs took the stage at Moscone Center in San Francisco for the kickoff of Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. As Jobs strolled on stage, he basked in the applause as one member of the audience shouted, "We love you."
"Thank you. It always helps and I appreciate it very much," Jobs said.
The conference has 5,200 attendees, Jobs said. "Today it is all about software," he said.
"If the hardware is the brain and sinew of our products, the software in them are its soul," Jobs said. "Today we are going to talk about software."
Jobs handed the stage over to one of his top executives, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, who introduced the latest version of the Macintosh operating system, Lion,
which has 250 new features. The highlights include new multitouch functions, swipe gestures to control full-screen applications, and "Mission Control," a feature that lets users view all the programs that are running and tap on any document to bring it to the front.
Another Lion feature is auto save, which lets users revert to an earlier version of a document.
Schiller said Apple's Mac Store -- which is part of the new Lion operating system, not a separate download application as it is now --has become the No. 1 channel for buying software, leaping over retail giants such as Best Buy.
Hours before Jobs took to the stage, thousands of developers ringed the city block around the Moscone West building. Mimes dressed in colorful full-body suits silently performed in front of the waiting engineers. Free coffee was offered to the chilly faithful, some of whom camped out overnight.
"It's a bit of a cult -- maybe more than a cult," said Martin Roth, chief technology officer of music app developer Reality Jockey.
Roth had flown in Saturday from London and hoped to be in line early enough to be among the fortunate few squeezed into the auditorium with Jobs. He quickly surmised, though, that he probably would be stuck in an overflow area.
"It's really about being in the same room with Steve Jobs," Roth said.
As for today's keynote, Apple, whose iTunes online store created an easy way for consumers to pay for digital music, is expected to announce deals with a number of record labels for a new "cloud-based" service that will enable people to access their music libraries through the Internet. Google and Amazon, on the other hand, have yet to ink streaming music license contracts with music companies.
"Apple has a lot of leverage. They've got almost 200 million devices that the music industry can't ignore," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. "So Steve is in a wonderful position to be first in line for any landmark deals with the music and movie industries."
Analysts believe Apple will roll out its cloud service over time, starting with music.
The industry standard for cloud storage is about $1 a month per gigabyte of content, and Bajarin expects Apple's iCloud pricing to match that. He and other analysts believe Apple also may wrap its MobileMe service, a storage and content syncing service that never really caught on, into iCloud.
While the usually secretive Apple took the unusual step of pre-announcing iCloud last week, the company is expected to announce some surprises. They could include a launch date for its latest Macintosh operating system, dubbed Lion, more details about the next generation of its IS operating system for the iPhone and iPad, and even an updated MacBook Air using Intel's (INTC) new fast and energy-sipping Sandy Bridge processor.
"A WWDC with no hardware announcement whatsoever would be a bit of a letdown for the market," Gartner analyst Van Baker said. "But we'll see."
Though Apple in recent years has announced a new version of its iPhone in June, analysts don't expect a new device until at least the fall or possibly next year.
Just after 10 a.m., Jobs took the stage at Moscone Center in San Francisco for the kickoff of Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference. As Jobs strolled on stage, he basked in the applause as one member of the audience shouted, "We love you."
"Thank you. It always helps and I appreciate it very much," Jobs said.
The conference has 5,200 attendees, Jobs said. "Today it is all about software," he said.
"If the hardware is the brain and sinew of our products, the software in them are its soul," Jobs said. "Today we are going to talk about software."
Jobs handed the stage over to one of his top executives, Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, who introduced the latest version of the Macintosh operating system, Lion,
which has 250 new features. The highlights include new multitouch functions, swipe gestures to control full-screen applications, and "Mission Control," a feature that lets users view all the programs that are running and tap on any document to bring it to the front.
Another Lion feature is auto save, which lets users revert to an earlier version of a document.
Schiller said Apple's Mac Store -- which is part of the new Lion operating system, not a separate download application as it is now --has become the No. 1 channel for buying software, leaping over retail giants such as Best Buy.
Hours before Jobs took to the stage, thousands of developers ringed the city block around the Moscone West building. Mimes dressed in colorful full-body suits silently performed in front of the waiting engineers. Free coffee was offered to the chilly faithful, some of whom camped out overnight.
"It's a bit of a cult -- maybe more than a cult," said Martin Roth, chief technology officer of music app developer Reality Jockey.
"It's really about being in the same room with Steve Jobs," Roth said.
As for today's keynote, Apple, whose iTunes online store created an easy way for consumers to pay for digital music, is expected to announce deals with a number of record labels for a new "cloud-based" service that will enable people to access their music libraries through the Internet. Google and Amazon, on the other hand, have yet to ink streaming music license contracts with music companies.
"Apple has a lot of leverage. They've got almost 200 million devices that the music industry can't ignore," said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies. "So Steve is in a wonderful position to be first in line for any landmark deals with the music and movie industries."
Analysts believe Apple will roll out its cloud service over time, starting with music.
The industry standard for cloud storage is about $1 a month per gigabyte of content, and Bajarin expects Apple's iCloud pricing to match that. He and other analysts believe Apple also may wrap its MobileMe service, a storage and content syncing service that never really caught on, into iCloud.
While the usually secretive Apple took the unusual step of pre-announcing iCloud last week, the company is expected to announce some surprises. They could include a launch date for its latest Macintosh operating system, dubbed Lion, more details about the next generation of its IS operating system for the iPhone and iPad, and even an updated MacBook Air using Intel's (INTC) new fast and energy-sipping Sandy Bridge processor.
"A WWDC with no hardware announcement whatsoever would be a bit of a letdown for the market," Gartner analyst Van Baker said. "But we'll see."
Though Apple in recent years has announced a new version of its iPhone in June, analysts don't expect a new device until at least the fall or possibly next year.