“Dropbox’s success is now at a critical moment,” Rachel Swaby reports for Wired. “Providing a way to give users access to everything they do on a computer from everywhere has become the brass ring for digital services. And Dropbox is the one to beat. After years of remaining largely below the radar of the world’s biggest computing companies, Dropbox is now faced with a host of very prominent competitors. The most immediate, of course, is Apple, whose iCloud service launched in October.”

“iCloud hits Dropbox hard on the simplicity and ease of use fronts because Apple has been working in this space from the beginning,” Swaby reports. “iCloud may be cross platform averse, but its automatic syncing slices seconds from Dropbox’s drag-and-drop approach…. You get the feeling that [Dropbox is] ramping up quickly in preparation for a nasty fight. And with iCloud, Apple’s thrown the first major punch. Sure, Apple has stumbled in the space before, but now with a few more years of development under its belt, they’re in a good position to snatch the ‘it just works’ catch phrase right from the Dropbox founders’ mouths.

Read more in the full article here.

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Why iCloud will be one of the most important products for Steve Jobs’ legacy – October 28, 2011
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WSJ reviews Apple iCloud: Worked without a hitch, plus it’s free – October 12, 2011