Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs will take a break from medical leave to deliver the keynote speech at next week’s Apple conference, the company said on Tuesday.
The keynote will feature a new “iCloud” service, the firm said.
It did not explain what the service will do, but Apple has been in talks with all four major recording companies on allowing users to store their songs on Apple-run servers rather than on their home PCs, a person familiar with the matter said.
The person was not authorized to speak publicly on the deals and spoke recently on condition of anonymity.
Jobs went on medical leave in January for unspecified reasons, handing over day-to-day control to chief operating officer Tim Cook. Investors were rattled because Jobs is seen as the creative force behind the company, crucial to shaping hit products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Even while on leave, Jobs has remained involved in larger decisions at the company and demonstrated the new iPad model at a news conference in March.
Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference starts on Monday in San Francisco.
Jobs decision to appear at the conference indicates he believes iCloud will be another breakthrough service for Apple.
ICloud could give users a wide array of music for their iPhones, iPads and Wi-Fi-capable iPods, without having to connect them to their home PCs to transfer songs. Google Inc and Amazon.com Inc have recently launched similar services.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, that iCloud would allow users to scan their home music collections and have it duplicated in the “cloud” of Apple-run computers. That would remove the time-consuming hassle of having to upload every song to the online storage locker.
Eliminating that hurdle would give iCloud a leg up over the comparable services from Google and Amazon.com, which requires uploads of existing song collections. Neither Google nor Amazon has secured deals with the recording companies.
It’s unclear how Apple intends to make money from the iCloud service, although a subscription plan seems likely.
Apple’s statement also said the keynote speech would feature Apple’s new Mac software, Lion, and the next version of Apple’s iPhone and iPad software.
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