iCloud vs. AWS: Apple Has Considered Competing With Amazon in Cloud

Apple in recent years has considered competing with Amazon Web Services (AWS), according to The Information's Aaron Tilley.

iCloud General Feature Redux
In a paywalled report today, Tilley said that Apple was actively discussing the idea into the first half of 2024, but he does not know whether the talks have continued. A supposed key backer of the idea, Michael Abbott, left Apple in 2023.

Apple's potential cloud service would allow developers to rent servers powered by the M-series chips used in Macs. A service like this allows developers to power cloud-based app features without purchasing and maintaining their own servers.

According to the report, some Apple executives believed that the power efficiency of M-series chips would make its cloud service more affordable for developers compared to AWS and other similar platforms. This belief is apparently backed by Apple's own use of the servers for the likes of Apple Music and Apple Wallet.

If such a service were ever to launch, perhaps it would have iCloud branding, and it would help to boost Apple's services revenue.

Popular Stories

airpods pro 3 purple

New, Higher End AirPods Pro Coming This Year

Tuesday January 20, 2026 9:05 am PST by
Apple is planning to debut a high-end secondary version of AirPods Pro 3 this year, sitting in the lineup alongside the current model, reports suggest. Back in September 2025, supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that Apple is planning to introduce a successor to the AirPods Pro 3 in 2026. This would be somewhat unusual since Apple normally waits around three years to make major...
smaller dynamic island iphone 18 pro Filip Vabrous%CC%8Cek

iPhone 18 Pro Leak: Smaller Dynamic Island, No Top-Left Camera Cutout

Tuesday January 20, 2026 2:34 am PST by
Over the last few months, rumors around the iPhone 18 Pro's front-panel design have been conflicted, with some supply-chain leaks pointing to under-display Face ID, reports suggesting a top-left hole-punch camera, and debate over whether the familiar Dynamic Island will shrink, shift, or disappear entirely. Today, Weibo-based leaker Instant Digital shared new details that appear to clarify the ...
Apple Logo Spotlight

Apple Expected to Unveil Five All-New Products This Year

Wednesday January 21, 2026 10:54 am PST by
In addition to updating many of its existing products, Apple is expected to unveil five all-new products this year, including a smart home hub, a Face ID doorbell, a MacBook with an A18 Pro chip, a foldable iPhone, and augmented reality glasses. Below, we have recapped rumored features for each product. Smart Home Hub Apple home hub (concept) Apple's long-rumored smart home hub should...
airtag prime day 2

Apple Developing AirTag-Sized AI Pin With Dual Cameras

Wednesday January 21, 2026 12:31 pm PST by
Apple is working on a small, wearable AI pin equipped with multiple cameras, a speaker, and microphones, reports The Information. If it actually launches, the AI pin will likely run the new Siri chatbot that Apple plans to unveil in iOS 27. The pin is said to be similar in size to an AirTag, with a thin, flat, circular disc shape. It has an aluminum and glass shell, and two cameras at the...
Liquid Glass App Store Feature

App Store and Apple TV Experiencing Outage

Tuesday January 20, 2026 4:36 pm PST by
Apple's App Store, iTunes Store, and Apple TV service are experiencing an outage at the current time, according to Apple's System Status page. Apple says that some users may be experiencing issues with the App Store and iTunes Store. Apple also says some users may be seeing intermittent issues with Apple TV. The Apple TV Channels feature is down too, and users may be unable to access some...

Top Rated Comments

dcjames Avatar
7 months ago
Unfortunately for Apple, AWS (as well as Azure and GCP) have a huge 20-year headstart on cloud computing. It's not just about letting people run VMs. Public Clouds offer managed databases, message queuing, video workloads, CDNs, object storage, TLS certificate management, IoT fleet management, Web Application Firewalls, managed Kubernetes and container environments - and so many other services that you can stitch together to build custom workloads. And it's generally very, very inexpensive if you know what you're doing. Apple does not do inexpensive very well; and based on how frequently their iCloud services go down, they unfortunately do not do reliability as well as required to offer a Public Cloud service with contractual SLAs. On top of that, Apple is a consumer-first company and Public Cloud is about business-first. It's not going to happen.
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Spock Avatar
7 months ago
I am guessing it will be like Siri competing with Alexa...
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MaverickCC Avatar
7 months ago
It's a great idea, but in the end it's just not where their passion lies... and that's always been a problem in the longer run for them with this type of offering.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
mhurron Avatar
7 months ago
They'd have a snowballs chance in hell, Apple has always been so great with the Enterprise offerings.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BabyBoii Avatar
7 months ago
please do it. AWS needs a real competitor.
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
tgwaste Avatar
7 months ago
Apple has always been terrible at all things cloud. They still are. AWS will eat their lunch.
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)