Apple Reveals the cost of extra iCloud Storage

[twerppoet]

At $20, $40, and $100 a year, Apple offers an extra 10, 20, and 50 GB of iCloud storage.

This is less half the price that MobileMe costs. At $99 a year it gave you 20GB of storage. For a dollar more you can have 55GB of storage, or at almost one fifth the price of MobileMe, 25GB.

The first 5GB are free, and probably enough for most people since it does not include your iTunes purchases, which are stored for free.

Many other online storage solutions are cheaper per GB, but this is a big reduction for Apple. Whether it will be worth that extra money will be determined by what other services are tied to that storage, how well they will integrate with the iPad, and whether third party developers will support it in their apps.

iCloud is not yet available. It should be coming sometime this Fall.


Apple prices out extra iCloud storage | Apple Talk - CNET News

 

[info]

Interesting how much cheaper these rates are as compared to MobileMe's to which I never subscribed. Thanks for pointing that out. I suspect that there will be a mind blowing synergy that will come about as a result of the combined use of Lion, iOS 5, and iCloud which should produce an awful lot of paying customers. Heck, for me, iOS 5 and iCloud alone should be enough to "need" more than five. I think I might just skip Lion altogether as the iPad begins to take over the whole show.

 

[thewitt]

Many other online storage solutions are cheaper per GB, but this is a big reduction for Apple.

Do you think this is true after you account for the fact that so many things don't count against your quota at Apple?

-t

 

[info]

Good point by thewitt. Here's another related TechCrunch article about iCloud that I found interesting:

Not Only Do iCloud Web Apps Exist, They’re Beautiful | TechCrunch

 

[twerppoet]

Many other online storage solutions are cheaper per GB, but this is a big reduction for Apple.

Do you think this is true after you account for the fact that so many things don't count against your quota at Apple?

-t

Ah, but not everyone's media files are from iTunes. Even if your media files are all from iTunes, there are all those photos, videos, and other media files that people take themselves.

I'm sure that 5GB sill be enough for most people, but anyone who intends to abandon their computer, but still create and keep media is gong to run out of space fairly quickly.

At that point they will either go with the various social sites (awkward if you don't want to actually share things), more iCloud storage, or another cloud storage solution.

Barring local storage solutions or your own server, of course. But that is going to be rather painful to manage without a computer, or some other iPad storage solution; better than the ones now available.

 

[singlestick]

Very interesting stuff. Is Apple trying to get around a formal file system for iOS by having stuff like iCloud for Pages, iCloud for Keynote?

 

[thewitt]

If you listen to Jobs at the Apple Developers Conference, you will see that he believes we should be moving away from file based computing to App based computing. iOS and iCloud is the first step in that direction.

-t

 

[singlestick]

If you listen to Jobs at the Apple Developers Conference, you will see that he believes we should be moving away from file based computing to App based computing. iOS and iCloud is the first step in that direction.

-t

Yeah, that's right. But doesn't iCloud have use implications for MacBooks, etc, for example, a project that you do with Pages and add stuff to via iPhone and iPad? I am not a beta tester or anything, but just kind of pondering how this all will fit together. I look forward to seeing more on this as things develop.

 

[Don9307]

At $20, $40, and $100 a year, Apple offers an extra 10, 20, and 50 GB of iCloud storage.

This is less half the price that MobileMe costs. At $99 a year it gave you 20GB of storage. For a dollar more you can have 55GB of storage, or at almost one fifth the price of MobileMe, 25GB.

The first 5GB are free, and probably enough for most people since it does not include your iTunes purchases, which are stored for free.

Many other online storage solutions are cheaper per GB, but this is a big reduction for Apple. Whether it will be worth that extra money will be determined by what other services are tied to that storage, how well they will integrate with the iPad, and whether third party developers will support it in their apps.

iCloud is not yet available. It should be coming sometime this Fall.

Apple prices out extra iCloud storage | Apple Talk - CNET News

I'm eagerly awaiting the release of the iOS 5.0 that will allow for Air-Updates.

Sent from my iPad 2 using iPF

 

[thewitt]

Yeah, that's right. But doesn't iCloud have use implications for MacBooks, etc, for example, a project that you do with Pages and add stuff to via iPhone and iPad? I am not a beta tester or anything, but just kind of pondering how this all will fit together. I look forward to seeing more on this as things develop.

We are doing application integration now and I really cannot talk about the unannounced feature set, but the API is extensive and app developers have lots of flexibility.

-t

 

[info]

If you listen to Jobs at the Apple Developers Conference, you will see that he believes we should be moving away from file based computing to App based computing. iOS and iCloud is the first step in that direction.

-t

Hmmm... I didn't catch that part, nor am I sure I understand the implications at all. It sounds important though.

 

[singlestick]

Yeah, that's right. But doesn't iCloud have use implications for MacBooks, etc, for example, a project that you do with Pages and add stuff to via iPhone and iPad? I am not a beta tester or anything, but just kind of pondering how this all will fit together. I look forward to seeing more on this as things develop.

We are doing application integration now and I really cannot talk about the unannounced feature set, but the API is extensive and app developers have lots of flexibility.

-t

Sure, I totally understand. Thanks for feedback. So far, the small announcements look very promising.

 

[thewitt]

Much of what you will see in iCloud storage will be app dependent. It could be transparent to you, mandatory, optional, app or file based. All options are available to the developer.

-t

 

[info]

Much of what you will see in iCloud storage will be app dependent. It could be transparent to you, mandatory, optional, app or file based. All options are available to the developer.

-t

Going forward, I suppose this implies a diminished role for OSX in the arena of day to day computing. Or maybe we are just talking about iCloud here.

 

[thewitt]

I think Jobs would love to see the desktop metaphor go away...

-t