And you can get an offline account with Windows if you're offline. Granted it's not transparent enough. Thing is, what Apple is trying to achieve with iCloud i

And you can get an offline account with Windows if you're offline. Granted it's not transparent enough. Thing is, what Apple is trying to achieve with iCloud is exactly the same as what MS is trying to achieve: bind you to a single account which will allow them to transition to a more service based business model. It's just Apple does it smoother.