After launching its cloud drive and music service in March 2011, Amazon has certainly taken its time before releasing a native app for iOS. In May of last year, Amazon made its Cloud Player . But a native app, essential to making the music service appealing to iOS users, was missing until today.

Cloud Player also lets you manage and create playlists, and play music already stored on your mobile device.

Amazon customers get 5GB of free cloud storage and can buy additional space as well, including 20GB for $20/year or 50GB for $50/year. Users who buy a storage plan receive unlimited space for MP3 and AAC (.m4a) music files at no additional cost, but only for a limited time, the company said.

If you're an iPad user, the Amazon Cloud Player isn't optimized for your device. It works the same as it would on an iPhone or iPod touch, but appears either as a small app surrounded by a sea of wasted screen space, or in an aesthetically challenged low-resolution mode that fills entire display.

Amazon Cloud Player is available now in the Apple iTunes Store.