Web-only access is a free level of iCloud service that’s available to anyone, including people who don’t own or use Apple devices. It includes access to Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for iCloud and 1 GB of free storage for any documents you create.
This is such a great idea.
Apple’s coming from this direction too, Google.
It’s a good deal until you see the paltry 1gb storage for free.
C’mon Apple. Get your storage options in line.
And while you’re at it, make iCloud more like dropbox in terms of access to it. Oh, and while you’re at it, give us a way in iOS to look at iCloud files without having to go through the app that created it. This is counterintuitive. There’s no point in having online ubiquitous storage if you can’t have random access to files.
I think this is a great move. But in the field of education, it’s coming about 3 years too late. Both Google and Microsoft have users living in the cloud in K12 education, and have systems that allow for more flexibility and more storage. Apple has the ability to not only catch up but also surpass those two companies, but will they bother? It took this long to just get to this point.
I agree it’s late, but it is what it is.
Leading up to this announcement, Apple has been speaking about how the company handles privacy. This, I think, will be an increasingly effective draw to iCloud.
That’s a really good point. Google mines their customers for data – the customer is the product. Apple’s got a great reputation for data privacy, and Google will never be able to have that. Microsoft doesn’t mine customers either, that I know of. But Office 365 online is not a great product. Apple’s already got them beat in ease of use in online tools.
Now it’s up to Apple to get the word out. From schools to businesses that have chosen Google over MS Office. They now have a very solid alternative in iCloud/iWork.
Apple has not attacked MS Office aggressively. iWork continues to improve, but there are many people I know who still use Office at work. This is a missed opportunity, iMHO.
Interestingly, on the “enterprise” side of things, Apple’s IBM partnership signals that they’re serious about working in that space, so perhaps we’ve just seen the first in a series of more aggressive moves by Apple in regard to iWork, etc.
1GB? 1TB would be about right … but then they would need to lower the price for existing customers. One would think this would be a smart move for Apple … maybe Apple compromises – 100GB could even be news.