I get that 5GB seems a little frugal on Apple’s part. On the other hand, when you pay you’re not the product (as opposed to free GDrive and free Facebook and you’re definitely the product) You get privacy and encryption and stability and peace of mind and convenience. Surely worth 99c or $2.99/month?
This is what people are getting...sure its FREE on Google, but is it really free in the end? Is the free price tag really worth it your privacy?
I have avoided Google as much as possible. I get tired of them tracking searches etc. I use DuckDuckGo instead. There is a price you pay for using Google, loss of privacy, it’s bad enough right now.
I can’t believe it’s not per device! I own 2 iPads, phone, watch and two laptops and I still only get 5GB!! I’m disgusted by it! Email Tim a year ago without reply 🙁
So you use 8GB of the allotted 10 GB for two devices.
Then you sell one device. What happens? Apple deletes the oldest 3GB?
Gotta increase those services revenues to please Wall Street.
iCloud revenue is only a rounding error.
Ben Thompson (stratechery) has it as their second biggest service revenue after the app store.
In the last earning call Luca Maestri (CFO) announced it was up 50% year over year to an all time record.
You can listen on this recent episode of the talk show from 2:27:10.
iCloud is not their only service included with the services category.
Might be worth re reading I was contesting the idea it was insignificant (rounding error). I did not claim iCloud was the only service declared under services (in fact I had stated App Store was biggest revenue from services).
I can’t believe it’s not per device! I own 2 iPads, phone, watch and two laptops and I still only get 5GB!! I’m disgusted by it! Email Tim a year ago without reply ߙt;/div>
So you use 8GB of the allotted 10 GB for two devices.
Then you sell one device. What happens? Apple deletes the oldest 3GB?
Simplest option is the storage is a one-time single allocation - so the second hand buyer gets nothing. It can be capped to up to 5 devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac...?) - which is pushing it for most people - so the max you get is 25GB. Or it could be capped to three years post purchase (which is sort of what Google do with the Pixel for photo storage). Apple could probably figure out something smarter - but there would be a way of capping it.
Transferring or retrieving storage would quickly get complicated. As one example if you sold an old phone before buying a new one then you would want to keep the storage in the interim period to be able to restore from backup once your new phone arrived.
As much money as they have, they can throw its users a bone and match Google in free storage!
But... but... but China. There's no Google presence in China and Apple would be obligated to spend untold billions updating data centers to serve China alone.
Reading that, I think it would be WAY easier for all customers and Apple (especially since devices are lost and repurchased, or exchanged under warranty etc.) for Apple to offer a free tier for everybody — say, 5GB — and offer an upgrade to, say, 200 GB for 2 or three dollars a month. Maybe a terabyte or two for ten dollars.
Oh, hey...
(snark aside, I do think they’d do well to up the free tier to 20 or 25 GB.)
While those of a certain persuation keep expecting "free stuff" from companies which "have enough money", according to them, in the real world, Apple just keeps on making great products and delivering great services such as paid iCould storage plans. We've been on the 2TB plan for months now, and it's very nice to have that much capacity for a reasonable price. It's very convenient to have it available to all of our devices (family plan), too!
But but but - rich people should give me things for free!
While those of a certain persuation keep expecting "free stuff" from companies which "have enough money", according to them, in the real world, Apple just keeps on making great products and delivering great services such as paid iCould storage plans. We've been on the 2TB plan for months now, and it's very nice to have that much capacity for a reasonable price. It's very convenient to have it available to all of our devices (family plan), too!
In the other real world, Microsoft makes great products like Office365 (which is FAR cheaper than any Apple device) yet they generously give every Office365 user a FREE 1TB of cloud storage. A $99 annual price gives 5 users 1TB EACH of OneDrive PLUS the entire Office 2016 suite. But Apple wants to charge it's users that paid $1000 for an iPhone or $500 for an iPad for anything more than a measly 5GB.
Is this the same Office product for iOS than i can’t buy outright, and must instead rent? Yeah sounds great. not. I won’t use Office for iOS since I can’t buy it and edit documents.
While those of a certain persuation keep expecting "free stuff" from companies which "have enough money", according to them, in the real world, Apple just keeps on making great products and delivering great services such as paid iCould storage plans. We've been on the 2TB plan for months now, and it's very nice to have that much capacity for a reasonable price. It's very convenient to have it available to all of our devices (family plan), too!
In the other real world, Microsoft makes great products like Office365 (which is FAR cheaper than any Apple device) yet they generously give every Office365 user a FREE 1TB of cloud storage. A $99 annual price gives 5 users 1TB EACH of OneDrive PLUS the entire Office 2016 suite. But Apple wants to charge it's users that paid $1000 for an iPhone or $500 for an iPad for anything more than a measly 5GB.
This ridiculous deal Apple is giving (a free month) is nothing more than baiting their loyal customers into more expensive plans. Once a user puts more than 5GB in their cloud during that month to make use of their "free space" what happens the next month? Gotta pay more or lose your data.
That's hardly a reasonable comparison, it's only $20/year less for half the storage, and includes their useless bloatware.
Apple is close to the price of several other cloud storage options. I still prefer sync.com, but iCloud is a reasonable option. Just be sure to turn off the "Optimize Mac Storage" and "Desktop and Documents Folder" options in System Preferences > iCloud > iCloud Drive. Both are dangerous, and Apple turns them on by default.
Comments
Then you sell one device. What happens? Apple deletes the oldest 3GB?
I did not claim iCloud was the only service declared under services (in fact I had stated App Store was biggest revenue from services).
What's a computer?
In seriousness that is a important consideration - maybe more so for iPad users.
Simplest option is the storage is a one-time single allocation - so the second hand buyer gets nothing.
It can be capped to up to 5 devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac...?) - which is pushing it for most people - so the max you get is 25GB.
Or it could be capped to three years post purchase (which is sort of what Google do with the Pixel for photo storage).
Apple could probably figure out something smarter - but there would be a way of capping it.
Transferring or retrieving storage would quickly get complicated. As one example if you sold an old phone before buying a new one then you would want to keep the storage in the interim period to be able to restore from backup once your new phone arrived.
Oh, hey...
(snark aside, I do think they’d do well to up the free tier to 20 or 25 GB.)
With Apple you are the customer and you give them money for the product.
Is this the same Office product for iOS than i can’t buy outright, and must instead rent? Yeah sounds great. not. I won’t use Office for iOS since I can’t buy it and edit documents.