“Apple’s iCloud is used for several purposes. You may use it for email; you can use it to sync your contacts and calendars; you can store files there, notably for Apple’s iWork apps; and you can use it to back up your iOS devices,” Kirk McElhearn writes for Kirkville.
“But what if you have several iOS devices, and also use iCloud for email and documents? If you back up your iOS devices to the cloud, you’ll quickly hit the 5 GB limit,” McElhearn writes. “Apple’s free 5 GB is a good thing; it entices people to use iCloud. But it’s not enough. If they want people to use iCloud, they should make it easier to use. Apple’s prices for storage are quite expensive.”
“Cloud storage prices are plummeting, and Dropbox, for example, gives you 100 GB for $100 a year, and Dropbox’s storage is much more flexible, since you can access it directly from a Mac,” McElhearn writes. “Apple needs to move to a model where they give you more storage, perhaps 5 GB per device.”
Read more in the full article here.
have to a agree. flickr gives you what…1tb free now? i would prefer to use the built in camera but instead, i use other ones for the free storage.
Have to disagree.
All Music is stored for FREE.
All Video is stored for FREE.
Pictures are stored for FREE (As many as you want, for 3 months I think…something like that….after that save them or buy storage for them)
Have to disagree with you, Paul.
Apple’s limited iCloud does NOT store all music, all video, and all pictures. Apple only allows the file formats that it has made compatible with its internal iOS apps. Anything else is verboten.
In short, iCloud is consumer-grade cheap storage and a free teaser is offered to get the weak addicted while they’re young. Apple does not guarantee any more security or privacy than any other online storage purveyor. However, other companies charge more to give the user a LOT more. This is something Apple used to do before Cook decreed that all Apple products must be tied to the limitations imposed by iOS and iCloud, and that Apple would practically ignore professional users, small businesses, education, and enterprise markets.
“Apple does not guarantee any more security or privacy than any other online storage purveyor.”
I would think encrypted FaceTime and messaging is a pretty impressive start.
You have no axe to grind here, because you have no skin in the game.
Your clueless about iCloud & file format protocols. Apple’s iCloud won’t back up a Jailbroken iPhone or iPad, or content from any competitor’s brand.
I don’t see a problem. iCloud is exclusive to officially sanctioned Apple consumers. Its one of the bennies of living in a walled garden.
In short, you’re short.
That’s really misleading Paul. You’re talking about content that’s purchased from Apple. Rip your CDs or DVDs and they’re not all for free. Likewise if you have your own music or videos.
iCloud is great. But it’s far too limiting for all of my cloud needs. They’d dominate the market and make a lot of money if they gave iCloud the additional functionality of Dropbox and went with larger capacity plans.
I’d like to see them provide iCloud capacities that matched device capacities that you have under AppleCare+ for the duration of the warranty. Additional capacity could be available at competitive rates.
If Apple offered a terabyte, it would be a kick in the balls of the internet; followed by choking and gagging.
There’s a reason they’re stingy with free stuff. Anyone living in an upscale neighborhood learns you don’t set out good free stuff unless you want zombies in your neighborhood.
I’m certain consumers operating exclusively on cellular networks, AT&T et. al., are loathe to back up to cloud storage, or participate in programs like iTunes Match, if your cellular plan comes standard with 4GB of bandwidth per month and a $10 fee imposed for each additional GB consumed.
When we get serious about iCloud so too will Apple.
This article is a Red Herring.
Offering a ton of storage for free isn’t any good at all if you are forced to pay someone else a hefty toll to transport and pack all your stuff into storage.
Who’s your mover? Who do you trust transporting your stuff?
Who’s your storage company? Who do you trust to protect your stuff?
BTW, Backing up a terabyte over AT&T’s network would cost me approximately a thousand-dollars, according to my fuzzy math.
Cheapness runs through the veins of Tim Cook.
Well it was SJ who was especially mean, with the philosophy of producing as little as possible while making as much as possible on it which survives today for the most part. Surprised that this particular one though hasn’t been changed as it looks so bad compared to the opposition and Apple is hardly down to its last boot straps. Gives more bad perception and slow moving and easily sorted which makes it most frustrating. You get the feeling like so much of Apple’s philosophy they just wait until they launch something where it would be a particular bonus and try to make a big thing of their supposed generosity. Guys when you aren’t producing new wonder goods so try to get the basics right will you and get some good press for a change.
I expected better from you. You think this is about money or generosity?
This is about keeping a lid on a good thing and not allowing it to devolve into some kind of welfare state where the consumer spends their days mooching off the internet and hoarding their warez in iCloud.
As for your insight into “Apple’s philosophy”, the truth is Apple has little idea how its products will be deployed or how they’ll be used once they’re introduced. It trends over time and Apple has an exclusive to all the metrics.
Steve Jobs could not have predicted the impact iPhone would make these past seven years. He chose a modest 1-percent of the cellular market and Apple is now fighting a war on five different fronts.
The world has yet to realize the true genius of Steve Jobs. His work will continue to have an impact for another century or two.
As for Apple’s generosity, if they were to do what you’re suggesting nothing would ever get fixed, just replaced, by a newer product, which sounds more like the old Microsoft philosophy; Embrace. Extend. Extinguish.
Dork
100GB for $100 per years, vs 5G Free. Hmmm I see how Apple is failing.
I must think that while you talk about DropBox, you probably are thinking about Google Drive. However you can’t use Google Drive as an example, because, between Apple, DropBox and Google, their motivation for cloud services are completely different.
Apple doesn’t want you to store data in the cloud. They want to sell you devices and must offer something to attract hardware buyers. If you want more space, you have to pay for it.
DropBox wants to sell cloud storage space. They don’t give it away. They do give a token amount of space free. If you refer a friend, they give you even a smaller token as a bonus. If you want more space, you have to pay as well.
Google – is giving Google Drive away, because they want to collect all your information, scan it and turn it into adds. They invade and read your stuff in order to monetize it. In many cases, if you want more space, you have to pay or there’s no option because you are already maxed out.
I am considering paying $25 per year for extra space on iCloud, but I am sure I am not being spied on by Apple. Maybe by the NSA, but not by Apple, and frankly this option does not turn into Ads that remind me of stalking.
Why does Apple charge for RAM upgrades in $100 increments? Why does Apple charge $19.99++ for a cable? Because Apple is the greediest company in the world that in not worried about ROI.
How about this? Apple knows the true cost of providing a product from dirt in the ground to in the consumer’s hand for the next 5 to 10 years.
Others are providing crap and or going out of business fast than you can really comprehend it. (just an idea)
EVERYONE knows you don’t buy RAM from Apple. We time our RAM upgrade to arrive from OWC the day before we take possession of our Mac.
Why does Apple charge $19.99++ for a cable?
I’m assuming you’re talking about the $19.99++ cable. You know the one!
If Apple didn’t make the cable for $19.99++, they’d have to charge more. Duh.
“EVERYONE knows you don’t buy RAM from Apple. We time our RAM upgrade to arrive from OWC the day before we take possession of our Mac.”
Good luck doing that in the future. Almost all Macs use soldered RAM on the motherboard now.
Actually, I just bought a new Mac and went with Corsair Vengeance RAM this time. Found a great deal that actually beat OWC’s price.
What part of “Almost all” did you not understand?
I bought a Mac mini. Not sure why you are so ” what part of blah blah.”
Good for you. G4Dualie said, “EVERYONE knows you don’t buy RAM from Apple.”, but increasingly that’s not possible as almost all Macs now have soldered RAM now. So my point was a counter to G4Dualie. Your comment was irrelevant because ya, there are current exceptions to the soldered RAM Macs as “almost all” implies.
Your Mac mini… the next model will likely have soldered RAM.
Seems to me you need to educate yourself on ROI. Apple buys component X for $1.00 and sells the upgrade for $10.00. Another manufacture buys product X for $1.00 and sells the upgrade for $5.00. Which manufacture has the higher return?
Of course Apple has massive ROI. It was sarcasm… However inarticulate. People always say Apple only cares about dazzling their customers, but their financials tell a different story.
I think they are probably no longer competitive at 5 GB free, which is low for even one iCloud backup (let alone for a family like ours with two iPhones, two iPod touches and an iPad before we even get to our Macs).
On the flip side of that, I am indeed willing to pay for some storage when I know that my data isn’t being culled and sold for advertising purposes or other more sinister uses. The day Apple starts doing that I’ll be ticked.
Maybe the infrastructure is just not ready yet. Remember iDisk?
Oh hell queen Victoria will be dead before they get around to it then… wait a minute.
Funny… 😉
Oh I remember it well, and I miss it dearly. I would gladly pay for it again. The integration was great, IMO, and I could put what I wanted there.
I agree that it would be nice if Apple offered more then 5GB of storage for free. However, Apple’s Storage is very unique. I don’t know of another free solution like Apple’s that will completely restore your entire device automatically, exactly the way it was when you backed it up to the cloud. This is much more valuable then just storage space.
Alas, the 5GB free is often insufficient unto the task of backing up current device configurations – I’ve set up several iPhones and iPads recently and one of the problems that arises pretty quickly is the inadequacy of the iCloud backup to actually backup the device for any but a light user. Two or three email accounts, one beloved game, a mix of media consumption apps and some business-productive apps, then add a transit app or two and a few books – next thing you know you’re beyond the 5 GB.
The 5GBs is not free. Not when you factor in the bandwidth consumed to transport the data to iCloud. It’s outrageously expensive over a cellular network.
Anyone who can justify paying a cable provider for bandwidth can certainly justify the expense of paying Apple for storage, especially if it’s the only means of backing up their devices.
Box. 50GB free.
Actually, BOX offers several plans: For personal use only 10GB is free. If you want more (100GB) it is $10/mo. There are other plans for business and enterprise and elite – all costing per user, platform, etc.
It does sync Apple and Windows and PDF files. You can store up to 250MB files free.
Seems like a good deal. Secure and all.
I get more with Runbox – in Scandinavia (so no snooping in-house – on the way isa different matter) I have great files storage and high volume and email – for $35 a year. Works for me. I prefer it over Yahoo and MS whatever and Gargle.
I got 50 gb free during one of their promotions. Free for life, and I’ve only used ~5 gb.
Because iCloud is free for the customer. Google will give you more at a cost. But that’s not big news. Plenty of cloud storage at high costs even today. So unless Apple can get a big discount on more storage 5 gigs is plenty when its free. However with all the growing data centers Apple is building we could see it go higher maybe.
I think Apple should at least match what Google is offering and I would like to see iDisk come back and complete with Google Drive and others.
20 bucks a year for 10 more gigs of space for a total of 15….plenty for backing up several devices and email.
20 bucks a year….A YEAR!!! That is $1.67 a month….$0.05 a day. How cheap do you have to be to bitch about spending $1.67 a month even of it’s for nothing more than to backup your iOS devices???
Need more storage for files, go Dropbox. Need more email space, there’s always gmail.
Same people who find this extra space expensive I guarantee are the same people who regularly spend 5 bucks a day on Starbucks mocha choca frappa lappa lattes.
Yea I have to say being an iPhone 5s user and iPad user that the 5gb of storage things sucks. I have to back up my iPad to my MAC which is fine when I’m home but when on the road or traveling it would be nice to at leaSt have access to an iPad back up In the cloud as well. I can only imagine at some point in the future they will allow you to back up mac data to the cloud as well which they definitely will have to exponentially increase that allotted 5gb of space then