Apple cuts 2TB iCloud plan to $9.99, Family Sharing access expands in iOS 11 & High Sierra...

AppleInsiderAppleInsider
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in General Discussion
As part of an array of updates and refreshes, Apple has also updated its iCloud data plan pricing, with a 2-terabyte plan now selling for $9.99 a month, and the old 1-terabyte plan no longer available.




The 2-terabyte plan available on Tuesday occupies the old pricing point, and the lower tiers remain static in both capacities and pricing. Free storage remains at 5GB, with 50GB and 200GB selling for $0.99 and $2.99 per month, respectively.

Additionally, with macOS 10.13 High Sierra and iOS 11, accounts using Family Sharing can also share iCloud storage. At present, family members cannot share one pool of data.

Announced on Monday, iOS 11 includes a revamped Control Center with deep 3D Touch support, the ability to directly transfer money to friends with Apple Pay, a new voice for Siri, and multi-speaker support with AirPlay 2.

The High Sierra update to macOS is intended as a refinement of Sierra, much like Snow Leopard was to Leopard, and Mountain Lion was to Lion. Improvements shown at the WWDC keynote include Safari refinements, Photos speed enhancements, the inclusion of Apple's APFS, H.265 support, and Metal 2.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 20
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,576member
    Yep, just checked, I have double the storage now! Excellent move by Apple.
  • Reply 2 of 20
    brauntjbrauntj Posts: 9member
    Wow. This is kind of a big deal. Between the 3 accounts I'm paying extra storage for, I'll get 800Gb more for $4/month less.
    watto_cobrajdgaz
  • Reply 3 of 20
    ndornquastndornquast Posts: 10member
    Family Sharing for the storage?!  This is great.. long time waiting for this.  Wish I could get 1TB for $4.99
    alphafoxjdgazsdw2001
  • Reply 4 of 20
    kztexkztex Posts: 5member
    Does this mean they'll be introducing a Selective Syncing feature? It would seem necessary for Family Sharing. If so, this is a major step up.
  • Reply 5 of 20
    alphafoxalphafox Posts: 132member
    I dont need 2TB but 1TB for $4.99 would be perfect. not spending $10 a month for storage, why does apple have to be so stingy? its not like they need an extra $5 a month from me.
  • Reply 6 of 20
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    alphafox said:
    I dont need 2TB but 1TB for $4.99 would be perfect. not spending $10 a month for storage, why does apple have to be so stingy? its not like they need an extra $5 a month from me.
    No they don't, so you could yourself a favour and buy your storage somewhere else. 

    Study after study claims that Apple has more affluent customers than anyone else. But every time I come here, it looks like the vast majority of Apple users must be eating out of trash cans. 

    If the kit is too expensive then buy something cheaper. 

    watto_cobralkrupppscooter63brucemc
  • Reply 7 of 20
    rogifan_newrogifan_new Posts: 4,297member
    alphafox said:
    I dont need 2TB but 1TB for $4.99 would be perfect. not spending $10 a month for storage, why does apple have to be so stingy? its not like they need an extra $5 a month from me.
    Classic upsell by Apple. Just like when they went 16GB > 64GB knowing that 32GB was the sweet spot. The expectation of course was once someone spent the extra $100 to get 4x the storage (even if they didn't need it) they wouldn't downgrade. They didn't do this with iPads yesterday which was a welcome change. But the iCloud pricing changes just show that upsell Apple isn't completely gone yet.
  • Reply 8 of 20
    smiffy31smiffy31 Posts: 202member
    Incredible, Apple cuts the price of something by 50% and people come to complain about price gouging and upsell.
    lkruppRayz2016StrangeDayspscooter63sandorchia
  • Reply 9 of 20
    SpamSandwichSpamSandwich Posts: 33,407member
    At this moment, Google charges $19.99/month for 2TB, so this is a good move by Apple. Presumably, Google will lower their price for parity.
    edited June 2017 lostkiwichia
  • Reply 10 of 20
    fbickingfbicking Posts: 8member
    I really like iCloud but hardly use it. Simple reason Apple does not let me choose the directory it uses. I only get 256GB SSD's and use external RAIDs or drives. For that reason I have been using OneDrive because I can tell it what folder to use. 
    toysandme
  • Reply 11 of 20
    lkrupplkrupp Posts: 10,557member
    smiffy31 said:
    Incredible, Apple cuts the price of something by 50% and people come to complain about price gouging and upsell.
    It’s what these types do. Permanent dissatisfaction bordering on psychosis.
    StrangeDayspscooter63lostkiwi
  • Reply 12 of 20
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,448member
    alphafox said:
    I dont need 2TB but 1TB for $4.99 would be perfect. not spending $10 a month for storage, why does apple have to be so stingy? its not like they need an extra $5 a month from me.
    50GB for .99/mo is pretty reasonable. 
  • Reply 13 of 20
    barthrhbarthrh Posts: 125member
    I wonder if shared family storage will facilitate sharing a Photos library across two or more users.
    lostkiwilikethesky
  • Reply 14 of 20
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 17,972member
    Great.  Family Sharing storage is FINALLY here!
  • Reply 15 of 20
    bryanusbryanus Posts: 22member
    SpamSandwich said:
    At this moment, Google charges $19.99/month for 2TB, so this is a good move by Apple. Presumably, Google will lower their price for parity.
    I'd say most likely, which means Dropbox will have to follow suit as well, which is what I use.
    SpamSandwich
  • Reply 16 of 20
    alphafoxalphafox Posts: 132member
    Rayz2016 said:
    No they don't, so you could yourself a favour 

    ill get right on that, thanks for the snarkyness.
  • Reply 17 of 20
    liketheskylikethesky Posts: 32member
    They likely won't do $4.99/1 TB, but they could do $5.99/1 TB, still quite a deal over the $2.99/200 GB plan, if you need more than 400 GB (2.99 + 2.99 = 5.98 for 400 GB).
    edited June 2017
  • Reply 18 of 20
    [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 0
    Good move, but a bump to the 50GB plan, or a cheaper 200GB would have been nice.
    I think this move goes along the future family sharing. For those who have a family or are willing to share space with somebody. I wonder what happens when you divorce/separate/kids move out of the house.... Does each member get a quota of the space? is the space "neatly" separated among users?
  • Reply 19 of 20
    sphericspheric Posts: 2,361member
    likethesky said:
    They likely won't do $4.99/1 TB, but they could do $5.99/1 TB, still quite a deal over the $2.99/200 GB plan, if you need more than 400 GB (2.99 + 2.99 = 5.98 for 400 GB).
    I'm pretty sure you can't stack plans. There is no way to get 400GB. 
  • Reply 20 of 20
    toysandmetoysandme Posts: 243member
    fbicking said:
    I really like iCloud but hardly use it. Simple reason Apple does not let me choose the directory it uses. I only get 256GB SSD's and use external RAIDs or drives. For that reason I have been using OneDrive because I can tell it what folder to use. 

    I'm in the same boat. Their extra TB is useless since I can't really use more than about 50 GB. Dropbox and Google are aware of this so they won't have to increase the storage they make available. 
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