Apple announces its iCloud, new software but shares fall

Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Monday ushered his company – and, by extension, the global computing industry – into the “cloud” era.

The new iCloud service replaces Apple’s MobileMe document-sharing offering, which costs $99 a year. The new iCloud service is free, Jobs said at Apple’s annual developers’ conference in San Francisco.

With iCloud, content such as music and documents is stored on large servers instead of on personal hard drives – and is accessible from anywhere through the Internet.

The new iTunes function lets people download songs to as many as 10 devices, instead of five, at no extra cost.

The company also announced new software to make Mac computers behave more like mobile devices and Apple’s mobile devices more like rival smartphones.

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Market reaction to Apple’s announcements was muted, as the company’s shares fell $5.40, or 1.6 percent, to close at $338.04. It was the biggest one-day decline in Apple’s stock since May 16.

 

Banks, energy companies lead stock market’s decline

Stocks were lower for a fourth straight day with banks and energy companies leading the decline. Worries about a slowing economy – spurred by Friday’s grim unemployment report – also continued to weigh on the market Monday.

The Dow Jones fell 61.30 points, or 0.5 percent, to 12,089.96. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropped 13.99 points, or 1.1 percent, to 1,286.17. The Nasdaq composite fell 30.22, or 1.1 percent, to 2,702.56.

 


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