I've seen a few commentators in the past few days noting that the second iteration of iPad is a missed opportunity to make a completely Cloud-centred device.
You still need a cable and a PC to do certain tasks like file transfers and software updates to iOS. Android seems to be a little better in this regard, although my own Samsung Galaxy phone appears now to be Cloud-reliant as a recent incident with a shirt top pocket and baby bath time seems to have killed the USB port (not bad for 5 seconds of total immersion).
However, I guess that all of this is tied to the extent to which devices need to cache data locally to be functional. That, in turn, depends on the ubiquity of network access.
Apps delivering data can be there for one of two main reasons- to allow functionality otherwise impractical in a browser, and to make data available when the darn internet is unavailable. The former is becoming less of an issue, especially with the emergence of HTML5. The latter probably is going to be a problem for a fair while longer yet, and until is resolved I think makes claims of any device being truly Cloud-based a little far fetched.
mmitII 