iCloud replaces iTunes for iOS device syncing, doesn’t replace MobileMe?

John Gruber at Daring Fireball has published his thoughts on what’s going down tomorrow with iCloud at WWDC. In short: “Don’t think of iCloud as the new MobileMe; think of iCloud as the new iTunes.” Gruber notes that the iOS syncing process of today requires a user to USB tether their device to their computer in order to sync music, video, apps, etc. iCloud might just be the future of iOS device syncing.

The ideal concept would be that a user can upload all of their media to the cloud, sign into their iOS device, and it will be ready to go.

But in short let’s just think about the ways that iCloud might be a major, dare I say game-changing, step away from USB tethering between iOS devices and iTunes running on your Mac/PC. Consider just the new out-of-box experience. Rather than “Take this out, plug it into your Mac or PC (after first making sure your Mac/PC is running the latest version of iTunes), wait for it to sync before you actually play with it”, you might get something like “Take this out, turn it on, sign into your iTunes account, and start playing with it.”

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