The North Carolina , which reports last fall said was ready then to go online "any day," will instead open on an unspecified date this spring, said Cook yesterday.

He also confirmed that the data center would support iTunes and MobileMe accounts, but did not elaborate or spell out changes to either service. Speculation has centered on the center providing the necessary storage for cloud-based music streaming, or online storage of consumers' files, photos and music. Or both.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal, citing anonymous sources, said that Apple would revamp MobileMe to offer a free cloud-based storage service to users, perhaps to owners of a that would forgo the massive amounts of RAM storage space in its current smartphone.

Gottheil seconded that, but believed that Apple won't leave all the MobileMe money on the table.

"I think they'll offer a free intro version of MobileMe, but also a tiered version," Gottheil said. "They want that subscription revenue stream."