Apple iCloud Provokes Microsoft’s Master Chief

So Apple had kind of a big day on Monday, unveiling the next versions of its iOS and Mac OS X operating systems – along with iCloud, the company’s new (and free) cloud offering.

As detailed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs and his executives, the iCloud service will sync user content and push it to various devices (such as the iPad and iPhone) via the cloud. Apple contacts, calendar and email are now cloud-centric features, with new messages and updates automatically delivered across the user’s ecosystem. Documents uploaded to the cloud will appear on the user’s other devices (provided the documents in question have been created using Apple’s productivity software; that is, Pages, Numbers and Keynote), along with any music downloaded from iTunes. To top it all off, iCloud is also a photo depository.

It’s a big deal. More to the point, it’s a shot across the bows of Google, Amazon and Microsoft. And what was Microsoft’s immediate response to Apple’s cloud revelations?

That was the trailer for “Halo 4,” which appeared at roughly the same time Jobs appeared onstage to show off his latest software toys. If anything was going to take even a smidgen of Apple’s thunder, it was Master Chief doing his usual personality-free, shoot-everything-in-sight routine. But all the virtual bullets in the world won’t stop this latest challenge to Microsoft’s “all-in” cloud strategy.

Cloud wars

What does Microsoft have in its consumer-cloud corner? SkyDrive, Hotmail, Xbox Live and Messenger. Within a day of Apple’s presentation, Microsoft sent an email to media calling out a Windows Blog post highlighting some of those services’ features – including Hotmail’s “contacts anywhere” and Skydrive’s ability to store and sync photos and video.

There’s also a substantial mobility play, with the upcoming Windows Phone Mango update giving users the ability to view and share photos on their smartphone via SkyDrive. Something similar extends to documents. “Windows Phone lets you view folders and files directly on your phone,” read the post, “so when you group things on SkyDrive, you know they’ll be available with the same folder structure on your phone.”

Hotmail and Xbox Live certainly have substantial audiences, and both SkyDrive and Messenger offer some interesting features. But if Apple’s proven anything over the last decade, it’s their ability to enter a new market and establish a substantial presence. It’s a near-certainty that Microsoft will respond to its rival’s newest initiative with a harder push for its own cloud offerings – including Office 365, set to debut later this month (and also intended as a robust response to Google Docs).

Nonetheless, Apple raises the specter of a new, tough opponent in a new, tricky market. Maybe Microsoft should consider calling in Master Chief.