Cupertino, CA

iCloud, the first product release of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) since company co-founder Steve Jobs died on Oct. 5, is seen as a service that would cement the loyalty of Apple product users.

Using the principle of cloud computing, the service stores photos, songs and other files on servers in Apple's data centers and make available the same files within seconds to other Apple devices. For instance, a photo stored in an iPhone, through the iCloud service, would be available within seconds to the owner's other Apple gadgets such as the iPad, iPod and any PC that run on iTunes.

The move is seen as Apple's way of shoring up competition against Google's Android, which had started to eat into Apple's lucrative market. With iCloud, Apple is hoping that users think twice before purchasing different high-tech gadgets that operate on various OS.

Analysts said iCloud has the potential of boosting Apple's market value by $100 billion to $500 billion because of its impact of hardware sales and purchases of songs, movies and other media.

Despite the threat from competitors, Apple continues to be the industry leader. According to the latest report of market research firm ComScore, Apple's iOS devices enjoy a 43.1 percent share of the mobile OS market and 58.6 percent of the non-computer traffic in the U.S.

In second place are Android devices at 31.9 percent, followed by Research in Motion at 5 percent. The remaining 4.6 percent is held by other platforms.

ComScore attributed the Apple dominance to the iPad accounting for 97.2 percent of all table traffic in August. iPads even account for more Internet traffic than iPhones, the report said.

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