As an end user, it’s often difficult to truly appreciate how complex some of the solutions we take for granted really are. Case in point: iCloud. Apple’s cloud sync and storage solution got off to a rocky start as MobileMe, and there were still some wrinkles to be ironed out when it was reinvented as iCloud. If you knew how complex remote sync technology really is, you’d be shocked. Instead, you just snap a pic on your iPhone, it pops up on your Mac and iPad, and you go on about your business. That’s the beauty of well-made solutions: They get out of our way and blend into the background.
Impressive though iCloud may be, it’s still perceived as a very pricey solution compared to rival offerings like Google Drive, OneDrive and Dropbox. As such, there’s a new idea being tossed around that might help make Apple’s iCloud a huge value for iPhone users, and potentially help Apple steal business away from rival cloud storage providers.
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Reddit user “IThoughtThisWasDigg” posted a simple idea on Monday that quickly become one of the most popular posts of the day in the Apple subreddit. Under the title “Apple needs to match the ‘free tier’ iCloud storage to correspond with the size of your iPhone,” he or she posted the following:
5GB of “free storage” when you have a 64GB phone is a total joke. By comparison, OneDrive will give you upwards of 20GB for free.
Story time: Today I found out that my mother’s 64GB iPhone ran up all of her free iCloud storage with photos/videos because it was only 5GB. That is ridiculous. She was basically set up to fail with a backup system that couldn’t even accommodate 1/10th of her phone’s total storage.
Apple still doesn’t get how to make a usable cloud storage system.
Normally, a random person on the Internet telling Apple what it “needs” to do is a good indication that whatever comes next should be ignored. In this case, however, it’s a great simple idea that makes sense. Yes, the move would cost Apple some money, but storage is ridiculously cheap and Apple’s core business is selling iPhones, not cloud storage.
If a tiny startup like Nextbit can afford to give all of its users 100GB of free cloud storage with the purchase of a $399 phone, we have to believe Apple, a $620 billion company, can afford between 16GB and 128GB per user.
