Apple’s iCloud headquarters is all but confirmed following this morning’s reveal on Google Earth. The company’s mysterious $1b data center in North Carolina has pulled back the blurry curtain and now renders in crisp satellite detail. In addition to the North Carolina house of tech, Apple has reportedly paid $4.5m for the icloud.com domain, now secured until 2018.
Steve Jobs has all of his cloud-streaming ducks in a row. On Monday at WWDC, the CEO will unveil the iCloud streaming services. We’ve covered the possibilities before, but now we know with certainly; Apple has the infrastructure to serve up billion-dollar content. Meanwhile the $4.5m payday for icloud.com’s previous owner, Xcerion, took place in April when the company moved its services from icloud.com to cloudme.com.
Cnet is reporting that Apple has reached licensing agreements with three of the top four record companies, including EMI Music, Warner Music and Sony Music. Universal Media Group, which happens to be the industry’s largest label, is the lone hold out. However, sources close to the matter say an agreement will be reached very soon.
Now the question remains — will Apple introduce both video and audio streaming with its iCloud service? Yesterday’s trademark filing would indicate yes. The company filed for trademark rights to the iCloud name with the Trade Marks and Designs Registration Office of the European Union, listing various classifications, including one for “electronic storage of data, text, images, audio and video”.
Coming Soon | Apple | TBD
