New
York – Analysts made few negative comments about Apple’s fall launch of the iOS
5 and integrated iCloud services.
The general consensus is the
developments will make Apple devices “stickier” but pointedly noted that many iOS
5 features have already been available on other mobile devices.
One major difference separating
iOS 5 from the pack is the ability of iOS 5 handheld devices to leverage Apple’s
planned iCloud Cloud-based services, which will wirelessly push newly
created or downloaded content from one iOS-based mobile device to a user’s
other iOS devices and to their Macs and PCs. The content includes apps,
pictures and videos as well as documents created in iWorks on Apple’s mobile
devices.
Apple
unveiled iOS 5 and iCloud
at Monday’s Apple developers conference.
“iOS 5 makes the Apple ecosystem
easier to use, increases the value —
and
stickiness — of sticking in
the Apple ecosystem, and fixes many nagging issues that have haunted iPhone
users for four years,”
said analyst Josh Martin of Strategy Analytics. “iCloud becomes the foundation of
the iEcosystem today with sights on grander ambitions tomorrow.”
Canaccord Genuity analyst Michael Walkley used similar terms in
contending that the “tight integration of Apple’s MacOS, iOS and iCloud offerings
creates an extremely sticky customer base.” As a result,
“
we
believe a growing and loyal user base will result in strong devices sales and
earnings growth for the next several years.”
For his part, The NPD Group’s
executive director Ross Rubin said Apple’s announcements provide “a mix of
short-term benefits and long-term potential.” He said the announcements “close
some feature gaps, launches a platform (iCloud) for potential new web
applications, and reboots their cloud strategy.” Adding the changes bring a new
convenience level to keeping documents and media in sync among multiple devices
and removes a potential barrier to buying an additional mobile device.
Canaccord’s
Walkley also lauded Apple’s new syncing capabilities. The ability to
automatically sync music, applications, photos, books, documents, and more
across all MacOS and iOS products “should drive increased customer loyalty,
resulting in recurring software and hardware purchases,” he said. The
developments “will make it much more difficult for competing ecosystems to
compete long-term.”
The
enhanced data sharing and automatic sync capabilities across Apple products, he
added, “will serve as a halo affect that will lead to increased Apple hardware
sales and software and content purchases across the entire Apple device
portfolio.”
