Wall Street analysts think iCloud's future has a silver lining

Apple fans and developers apparently weren't the only people who liked the iCloud announcement on Monday at WWDC. As reported by Fortune's Philip Elmer-Dewitt, Wall Street analysts are almost unanimous in their positive comments about iCloud's effect on the financial future of Apple.

For example, Credit Suisse's Kulbinder Garcha is quoted as saying "Although Google and Amazon are already offering cloud based offering, we believe Apple has continued to lead innovation in the services space with the introduction of its iCloud, which we believe is superior to existing cloud services from competition."

RBC Capital's Mike Abramsky was even more enthusiastic when discussing the PC-Free capabilities of iOS 5, noting that by "'cutting the cord' to the PC, Apple may expand its addressable device market by 4x, addressing the ~3B handset users who have a phone -- but not a PC."

TUAW's favorite analyst, Piper Jaffray's Gene Munster, also chimed in on the ability of future iOS devices to work sans PC, and commented that "Bottom line is that Apple is increasing the likelihood that consumers buy multiple Apple devices ... Apple will be giving away iCloud for free (we had expected it to be priced between $25-$99 a year) ... sharing non iTunes music will cost $25 a year. (As a point of reference, Amazon's Cloud drive could cost up to $200 a year.)"

The future for Apple looks as bright as the sunlight in those architectural renderings of the proposed Cupertino campus of our favorite company.