Dan Moren, SixColors:
Look, it’s lovely that Apple has decided to give 200GB of free iCloud storage to any Apple ID associated with a teacher or student. It’s a nice gesture, and one that probably makes things a lot easier for those in school environments.
But, come on, Apple—you’re really going to leave the rest of us at 5GB?
Apple has a balancing problem. On one hand, there’s the profit motive of one of the largest corporations in the world and the corresponding pull to maximize shareholder value.
And on the other hand, there’s the motivation to do what’s right, whether it be equal rights for all, privacy, or simply delivering fair value to the consumer beyond what’s required to pull money from their pockets.
The 5GB thing? To me, this falls on the wrong side of the line.
More from Dan:
The standard 5GB of free iCloud storage has been in place for years now, and, frankly, it’s starting to wear thin. When most iOS devices come in 32GB configurations at the smallest, and many start at 64GB, 5GB feels pretty paltry. Especially when the next step in the upgrade tier is to pay $0.99 for 50GB of storage space. I realize Services has become a moneymaker for Apple, but it just feels cheap.
5GB feels like a money grab. Apple clearly recognized the need for a bigger storage baseline when they announced the 200GB free tier for education. Bravo to that. But now it’s time, Apple. Make the change. Just as you eliminated the 8GB and 16GB minimum device configurations, recognizing them as outmoded, bump the free storage tier.
I just wish we could stop with the “value for shareholders” and “profit” excuse for apple. those things used to be a result, not an objective. With Steve Jobs, the vision was much clearly ahead of counting pennies, and this is something you can feel in current apples product line and services offering.
$APPL has been touting the growth of Services revenue for some time now and unfortunately that is directly at odds with giving away more storage for free. The Street would probably punish them beyond all reason if they were to offer significantly more.
OTOH, if Apple sees this as contributing to users switching to other platforms, then they’ll almost certainly protect the core business.
Craig
(BTW, I find it sweetly naive that some people still think Jobs wasn’t profit motivated!)
I’d be surprised if revenue from iCloud storage was a significant motivation for Apple. That said other companies offer free storage because their users are their product and they monetize the data they can gather from users. Apple doesn’t do that, so attaching prices to services keeps a level of financial transparency and accountability both for Apple and its customers.
If it wasn’t a cash grab, you would expect it to at least be 5 GB a device. But somehow the owner of an iPad and 2 iPhones are expected to share 5 GBs across all of their devices?
I’m concerned that Apple sees services as a source of growth, because much of that revenue is coming from things like customers who are forced to buy iCloud storage to back up their iPhone.
Apple can show “growth” in services by keeping the free storage tier small, and by making the iOS Music app kind of useless unless you subscribe. But customers aren’t *choosing* iCloud and Apple Music, the way they might choose Spotify or Google Docs or Dropbox.
I wouldn’t buy a phone that can’t run Spotify, but even though I’m an Apple Music customer, I don’t care if my next phone (iOS or Android) supports Apple Music. I only subscribe because I have to, in order to use Siri with it when I’m in my car.
5GB doesn’t even give me a full icloud backup, I need to untick loads of stuff. The 50GB option is never going to be the free tier until minimum device storage is higher, but it really should be.
The 5GB is a useless joke, and has been for some time. One back up and you’re getting warning messages. I expect at the WWDC we’ll see this bumped to 200GB for all users.
Thought exercise. If Apple would bump up the storage to 200gb for everyone at the free tier, what sort of impact would that have on competition like Amazon, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc?
I don’t think a lot of their services revenue is that $.99/mo for 50GB (or $2.99 for 200), though.
“Services”, after all, includes all of iTunes, AppStore, Music, and Apple Pay, too.
I can’t see the Street killing Apple over Moar Free Storage … nor do I see Apple caring that much about a short-term share value hit, in any case.
Since they started iCloud, I’ve bought a couple of iPads and probably four phones, and two Macs.
I think they can proooobably justify more than 5GB for me without remotely touching the profit margin, especially considering that iCloud is a backup platform, not a DropBox-like exchange system, thus lowering bandwidth costs.
(6TB enterprise drives are $180 retail, after all.
Yes, of course it costs more than the bare cost of a drive to provide storage; you need controllers, infrastructure, power, cooling, all that, not to mention bandwidth and human costs.
But data storage is nearly free in bulk, is the point.
Loyalty and customer goodwill alone probably make a higher freebie level of storage profitable.)
Very little for most of them, I think.
Between “iCloud isn’t really cross-platform at all”* and “people who are seriously big DropBox or Drive users are using it for file interchange, which iCloud is not ideal for”, I don’t see it.
(I also don’t see that Apple even wants to compete in that market, rather than using iCloud to make users’ lives better and thus encourage retention and loyalty.)
(* Yeah, iCloud for Windows exists. Does anyone hate themselves that much, though?)
Yeah, when I mentioned that lineup, that’s what I currently own, not counting my MBPs. Lifetime, I’m sure Apple could have given me 200 GB without much of a hit on their profits.
The real gain is avoiding creating ill will when someone’s stuff get lost and can’t be recovered because the box was unchecked to save on storage.
I’ve always thought the 50GB for $0.99 was a way to encourage people to enter their credit cards. It’s worked on me: whenever I help someone set up a iPhone or iPad, I sign them up for the 50GB so that they go no-hassle backups.
I would love to have more storage free.
But I did want to say I’m spending $3.99 (Canadian) per month for 200GB and it has thus far failed to hurt me in any way.
I’m just as happy that Apple charges for iCloud: that makes it more likely that the service will continue to exist in the long run and that it will not simply be used as a means to acquire tracking information about those who use it.
when it does go up, it won’t be 200. perhaps 20 or 50.
when people cite the size of the iphone it’s misleading because your apps and purchased music don’t count against it. photos, vids and and backup is the main thing for most people.
when it does go up, it won’t be 200. perhaps 20 or 50.
when people cite the size of the iphone it’s misleading because your apps and purchased music don’t count against it. photos, vids and and backup is the main thing for most people.
The uproar here makes me think a little about folks who see malevolent intent where the fault is simply indifference or incompetence.
In Apple’s case, I think it’s more about neglect than a “money grab.” Free iCloud storage just hasn’t likely been on anyone’s priority list over there.
And it seems to me that a bump up from 5GB would make the free storage more useful to a lot more people who might not otherwise have considered giving it a try. Why upload 4.5GB of stuff as a test if I’ll only need to erase that space and re-upload triple that amount to another service anyway?
Jobs was definitely into profit and charging for things. today’s Apple gives away more stuff than his did.
anyway, Apple is famous for not being a company that is driven by the stock market or share price, and instead for delighting the customer.
but don’t take my word for it:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/11/28/maximizing-shareholder-value-the-dumbest-idea-in-the-world/
Because tracking customers is something Apple’s known for?
No, that would be Google. Servers, storage drives, and electricity aren’t free; they have to be paid for somehow. I prefer Apple’s explicit charge so they don’t have to use Google’s evil monetization of my information to pay the bills.
Apple Services becomes a profit center by them squeezing every last dime out of the faithful.
It’s a ripoff
Then why did you suggest that it’s something that Apple might consider doing?
Ah…. seems obvious to me? “the cloud” and “free storage” are just someone else’s hard drive attached to someone else’s server paid for by someone else. The income to pay for that has to come from somewhere. Neither Apple nor anyone else can offer it for free. Apple is currently charging cash dollars per year for that storage. If Apple gives more “free” storage it will have to pay for it somehow. Revenue from a phone sold in 2016 does not pay for storage in 2020. Where will that money come from? Well, some other source that is available to the cloud provider, such as tracking information – which is why I prefer upfront cash charges. Clear?
It’s clear that you’re deliberately ignoring Apple’s business model, regardless of how Apple chooses to pay for their cloud storage costs.
It is clear that you are not capable of grasping discussion about future possible paths based on analysis of present factors. One suspects you don’t quite grasp that the “cloud” consists of real equipment, electricity, and salaries that must be paid for x years.
And with a little bit of further thought, one might posit that Apple could find some other way to pay for this considerable expense in a way that didn’t directly negate one of the company’s most-lauded qualities.
One might, alternatively, choose to expect the worst possible behavior from a company that became the world’s most successful corporation by avoiding worst behaviors.
50, maybe, but 20 won’t cut it either. A backup of an iPhone and/or iPad, along with all the HD video and photos people take these days, and 20 will disappear damn near as quick as 5. The minimum should be actually usable for the basics like backup. I’d really love to see them step up here and go 200, but how about 100 at least?