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them? They're the ones that brought me MobileMe!” (Sutter 2011). One
of the service's biggest problems was synchronizing customer iles, music,
videos, mail, contacts, and calendars across multiple devices. The source of
many complaints, the world of MobileMe was anything but harmonious.
That is probably why, when the cloud symbol became the icon for the
company's online services, Apple was keen to focus on harmony.
The irst iCloud ads predated the launch and provided a simple expla-
nation of the service that demonstrates its capacity to seamlessly integrate
customer devices. After the frame featuring the image of a cloud, the
voiceover explains, “With iCloud, when you buy a song on one device,
it instantly downloads to all of your others. Take a picture here, it shows
up there. Start a project in one place and pick up right where you left
off in another. Capture the moment here, and it's waiting for you there.
Make a change on this, and it updates on that. And with iCloud it all
works instantly and wirelessly. So you always have the things you want,
exactly where you want them” (Apple 2011). Having educated its users
in iCloud basics, later advertising came with no voiceover at all (Apple
2012). The ads were composed of purely visual images of music, photos,
books, and apps downloaded from and uploaded to the cloud and instantly
synchronized across iPhones, iPads, and laptop computers. No voiceover,
and one frame of script: “Automatic, Everywhere, iCloud,” a description
of pure harmony.
With or without a voiceover, Apple ads are distinctive because the
discourse on perfection is embodied in the commercial aesthetic. The par-
ticipants start perfect and raise the level of perfection through the cloud.
There is no dramatic tension, just a new level of sublime harmony. This
differs sharply from the Microsoft ads, which, whether directed at business
or consumers, acknowledge the world's imperfections and demonstrate
how to use technology to correct them. The source of difference is uncer-
tain, but it is clear from interviews with the founders of these companies,
Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, that the former was a perfectionist whose goal
was to control the entire experience. Gates is a supporter of open systems
that risk laws in order to expand the number of users, a position that
Google has followed with its Android-based devices (Isaacson 2011, 534).
Commercials like Apple's for iCloud help to construct the discourse
around cloud computing. The examples we have explored are particu-
larly signiicant for their attempt to surround the cloud with visions of
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