So Apple’s finally throwing it’s 4th shot in online media services with iCloud. Yes, it’s the 4th time around. Apple’s failure saga started in 2000 with the launch of iDisk, followed by .Mac, and then by MobileMe, a paid online service for synchronizing personal information which was notorious for having way too many bugs and a crappy interface. Apple has made some announcements today regarding the developers’ conference to be held next week which will contain a preview of the new Mac OS X Lion and iOS 3 operating systems, as well as details on iCloud, which will be shared to us by Steve Jobs himself.

According to NDP consumer analyst Ross Rubin, the iCloud shows Apple’s intention to tackle on-demand media as well, allowing customers to access their iTunes music and movies on the internet via multiple devices. However, Apple’s assertive transition to the cloud may come off a bit late and unrefined compared to its competitors who have gone ahead.

“There’s clearly an opportunity that Apple hasn’t really exploited before in terms of media and centralization,” Rubin told Wired.com. “The opportunity is to move forward with what they acquired with [music-streaming service] Lala and toward having media available on demand.”

We’ve also seen Apple wanting to make good in Hollywood. However, its chance might get spoiled by HBO’s contract with Hollywood’s three biggest studios. There’s a reason to be skeptical about iCloud because of Apple’s previous flops, but there are also those who believe it could beat Sweden-based Spotify to the American market with a streaming music service. It has been pretty difficult for the latter to convince record companies to allow the company to operate in the US.

But Apple shouldn’t be too confident. Spotify is not its only competitor. There are a handful of competitors in the market. This includes the newly launched Music Beta by Google which debuted in the I/O developer conference. It will act as a “digital locker” where user can store their music in the cloud.

We can only hope Apple will not repeat what critics labeled the MobileMess. It happened back in 2008 when the MobileMe outage left some 20,000 customers unable to access their emails for a couple of weeks. To add to the injury, the service’s recovery didn’t have a dramatic comeback as the service didn’t mature at all. This was pointed out by John Grubber, one of Apple’s bloggers in his keynote speak during Macworld 2010. “There was little sense behind MobileMe’s web apps, as they don’t offer any benefits for their native counterparts on the Mac or iPhone.”