Apple's Next Big Thing

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I started writing this post last Monday, so here it finally is!

Apple's tremendous success in recent years has been thanks in large part to two incredible devices: the iPod and the iPhone. Yeah, they make great computers with an excellent operating system, but the iPod and iPhone were revolutionary shifts in the tech industry. 

So what's the next big thing for Apple? Is it going to be a gadget? I doubt it - the iPhone is at the cutting edge, and they'll certainly improve on it continually, but I'm not sure anyone even knows what the next generation hand-held device will be.

(side note: there are rumours Apple will soon be releasing a large-scale iPod Touch, with a 7 or 9 inch screen, which is pretty cool, but I don't see it as a huge new innovation)

Obviously, unless you're Steve Jobs, you don't have the answer. But I have a guess.

The next big Apple product will be......

drrrrruuuuuummmmmrooolllllll

iTunes Online. Or, as I will now dub it, oTunes. (eTunes might be more logical, but I think the eInsertWebsiteNameHere market is saturated)

I can see you're not blown away. I guess I should explain what I mean.

More and more, stuff is going into the cloud. By the cloud, I mean online storage, webspace hosted by someone else. You can put your files online - photos can go on flickr or facebook, videos on youtube. Instead of downloading TV shows and movies, you can stream them - legally on sites like hulu, or illegally. It's not just files, either - whole applications are moving to the cloud. You can create and share documents in Google Docs, which isn't as powerful as Microsoft Word, but contains the basic functionality that most users need. Calendars and address books are managed online, and as time goes by, more and more powerful applications will be moving into the cloud.

Soon users won't need hard drives at all. The internet is so widespread, you'll be able to store everything online and access it anytime, from anywhere, and modify it using any application.

Now this isn't going to happen tomorrow. But it's already started with many types of media, including music.

Okay, you say, so what? So we can store and access our music online. How is that a product on the same level as the iPod or iPhone? Well, I'm not done describing what oTunes will be capable of.

Have you heard of MySpace Music? If you're reading this blog, I would guess not, since you're probably Canadian, and MySpace Music is only in the U.S. for now. It launched in September, and the basic idea is that you can stream any song online for free. And it's legal.

Wait, what? How did MySpace do that? Well, the basic idea is they made deals with all the major record companies and thousands of indie labels. The labels get a stake in the company in exchange for allowing the music to be streamed for free. (the major labels do, at least... I'm not sure what the agreement is for indie labels)

The problem: MySpace's interface sucks. This has never been their strong point. I used some thingee that masks your IP to make the web gods think you're connecting from the U.S. in order to try out both MySpace Music and hulu, and was very disappointed (in both cases). It's not intuitive, and it takes forever to build a library. 

Now, there are start-ups out there right now that are trying to do what oTunes will do (such as LaLa), but they simply aren't big enough to negotiate deals that offer unlimited free music and stay in the black. Apple is a major player in the tech industry, so this won't be a problem. Furthermore, they have a very good track record of UI design, and tons of experience with music, so I see this as a logical step for them.

In summary, here's what oTunes will be capable of:

1. you will be able to automatically import your existing iTunes library into your oTunes library
   
2. you will be able to easily discover music using the oTunes Store, and add it to your library at no charge
   
3. oTunes will look exactly like the extremely user-friendly iTunes, the only difference being that it's web-based. Similarly, the "oTunes Store" will be a copy of the iTunes Store, but things will be free.
   
4. oTunes will likely start with mostly music, but just like the iTunes Store expanded to the realm of TV, movies, podcasts and more, the oTunes Store will as well.

Here's hoping Steve Jobs is reading this and hasn't thought of it yet. Steve, just leave a message with my assistant, I'll get back to you when some other stuff clears up.