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At WWDC2011 Steve Jobs officially unveiled the iCould, stating: "We are going to demote the PC to just be a device. We are going to move the digital hub, the centre of your digital life, into the cloud."

In a recent interview Wall Street Journal columnist and AllThingsD cofounder and editor Walt Mossberg gave his impressions on the iCloud and the post-PC era.

In the interview Walt clearly stated his belief that "[…] we are firmly in the post-PC era", mainly due to the rise of computing power in mobile devices, smartphones and tablets eating away at the tasks users traditionally did on PCs, and the cloud.

Walt later pointed out that a major determinant for the success of cloud services lies in addressing the issue of security both in terms of reliability and privacy. Apple's offering would have to ensure secure maintanence of the information it will carry along with flawless delivery in order to succeed.

Walt termed the iCloud and cloud services in general as the ‘2nd inning’ of the post-PC era. The first was with hardware devices, most dominantly iOS and Android powered phones and tablets, whereas in the second companies have been moving towards cloud based services and software.

While it seems self evident how the iCloud will contribute to cementing customer loyalty for Apple’s products, Walt makes an interesting point explaining that the seamless integration promised with the iCloud will not only help lock in iPhone owners into buying the next iPhone or iPad owner into buying the next generation iPad for example, but wanting to own all devices.

Walt’s concern over the issue of security, more specifically reliability, was also touched on by John Paczkowski in his writings concerning the iCloud.

John argues that the success of the iCloud will mainly be dependent on its ability to work as advertised, "because it will undoubtedly be so unpleasant to give up the effortless mobile data ubiquity it provides."
For him Apple’s promise with the iCloud culminates with "[…] its most important feature […] the one we’re most apt to overlook as we jaw away about storage caps and acceptable iTunes Match file formats: Simplicity."

The iPhone and iPad bear testimony to Apple’s genius in its ability to combine functionality with intuitive UIs supported by efficient hardware. Should Apple carry over this winning combination into the cloud it is sure to "[…] become one of those 'how did I ever live without this' services."