Apple thought about offering cloud services infrastructure to developers

Here are 5 less well-known things you can do with iCloud online that you may not have used before.

Not so long ago there was some speculation Apple intended to open up its Private Cloud Compute service to developers, opening up a brand new business opportunity in the provision of highly secure, highly private cloud services. Kind of like AWS for Apple developers.

Now it seems there was at least a glimmer of fire in this smoke, with The Information confirming Apple did look at these plans. The report explains that Apple was actively discussing this notion into the first half of 2024, but the author does not know if those talks continued.

The idea seems solid enough to me. In this model, developers would rent server cycles from the Private Cloud Compute stack enabling them to run cloud-based app features within Apple’s private server systems. The servers are, of course, running M-series Apple Silicon chips, which makes them powerful, delivers plenty of power per watt, and makes them cheaper to run. That efficiency can then be passed onto developers.

While the report doesn’t specifically name Apple’s private cloud service, it’s way too easy to surmise on that possibility, particularly as Apple is understood to be manufacturing servers to power up the iCloud-delivered side of Apple Intelligence. I see it this way, if the company is going to invest so much money in server capacity it is going to want to build some form of business from out of that investment.

“Siri was the first team to try out servers powered by Mac chips for text-to-speech capabilities. The servers provided a performance improvement in accuracy and cost reduction compared to traditional servers with Intel chips, said people involved in the project,” the report states, before explaining that Photos and Apple Music also now use the same servers.

I think a service offering developers the capacity to use Apple’s servers to power up their applications would be popular. However, one big concern might be regulation, as recent privacy-destroying laws in some rogue states, such as the UK, may have made the business of offering such services more complex. It is also possible that competitive concerns got in the way.

It still sounds like a good plan, however, with a potential revenue opportunity to be grabbed.

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