Apple has confirmed today that they will launch Mac OS X 10.7 Lion - an announcement which can be considered to be one of the most important one of the year, at least for Apple and the Apple fans. Apple announced the unveiling of some software platforms, which it has been secretly developing in the labs. These include the very anticipated iOS 5 and iCloud along with some others. The unveiling will be done at the WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) on June 6th. Let's take a look on what will be the basic offering of iOS 5 and iCloud.

iOS 5

With the increasing competition that Android is giving to iOS, I can bet that iOS 5 is going to see drastic changes. Many new features have been rumored for iOS5. It is expected to offer widgets, voice recognition features and better notifications. Dashboard-like "widgets" are expected to display information like the weather or top headlines on the device's home screen - much like what Android already offers. iOS has already borrowed features from Mac and some more are expected. With introduction of iCloud, we can also expect some more cloud functionality added in iOS5. Other included features like a new mapping capability and improved multi-tasking are also expected.

iCloud

Apple acquired iCloud.com domain name in April for an estimated $4.5 million. Apple is expected to launch its own cloud service called iCloud. iTunes is supposedly going to see an integration with iCloud. Other services may include transferring books, photos, and even video in the cloud as well. Cloud Storage could also be an option. Is it a refinement of the cloud syncing service DropBox, who knows?

Will Apple give a serious competition to the existing cloud players - Google and Amazon? We will have to wait for the proper announcements from Apple about iCloud to be sure about what's actually Apple plans to do with it.