Macworld:
There’s no shortage of predictions over what Apple will discuss at its upcoming September event, but here’s one thing that the company probably won’t spend any time on, even though perhaps it should: iCloud storage.
Inevitably, when my friends and family talk to me about tech problems, iCloud is among the most prominent culprit in their tales of woes and frustration.
iCloud is a great idea – in theory. In practice, there are far too many issues for far too many people.
fair enough, but it doesn’t suck nearly as hard as it used to.
I might be in the minority’s of users, but I honestly don’t have a any issues with iCloud anymore. My backups are always there, I know if I lose my phone it’ll restore just like it was the night before. I really enjoy it and encourage everyone to at least get the $0.99 tier.
I suspect that Apple designed iCloud for two main functions in the long term. Everything else – syncing app data, backing up devices, Family Sharing, etc. – is just there to conform to what users think “cloud computing” should be at the moment.
Long-term goal #1: Large-scale video streaming
Sure, Apple is already doing that on a limited scale. But it’s only a matter of time before movie and TV content providers “cut the cable” and join the TV bandwagon. That will require massive, distributed server power. (And it will require much TV industry disruption, massive power shifts, and hundreds if not thousands of newly minted and signed contracts.)
Everything Apple has done in the TV space until now is just practice for whatever future system they are planning to roll out. With whatever interface they have designed for it. Which brings me to long term goal #2.
Long-term goal #2: Pervasive Siri
Face it: the poke-and-swipe mobile device UI has been around for almost 20 years. (Since 1997, when the first PalmPilot was released. Look it up on Wikipedia.) Voice-driven interaction with computing devices was a thing of science fiction (Star Trek, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Star Wars, etc.)
Siri started out as something of a novelty, but I think it will be crucial to Apple’s future. Yes, it’s taking a long time to expand its knowledge and features, but there was the small matter of privacy to nail down first. If there are a billion devices constantly using Siri, then Apple will need a lot more server farms to handle all that computing.
Everyone thinks the Watch will eventually replace iPhone. Sure. In the near-term. But I’m thinking that wireless AirPods will eventually be the primary Apple mobile device. Think “Her” (2013). They’ll be cheap – almost disposable – and all the processing will happen in Apple server farms.
Both #1 and #2 will, of course, be driven by some future version of iCloud.
I’m in that minority as well. I think the price for the amount of storage I need is very reasonable. Messages still occasionally gets texts out of order. Unrelated (I guess), I even love Apple Music and Family Sharing. Security features confuse family members (and me too sometimes), but that’s a hard issue to solve.
I think doubling the free storage would fix the vast majority of problems, and ought to be something Apple can afford easily.
And, personally, I’d pay for a higher tier anyway.
Same. I do think the 99 cent charge is petty and is a barrier to people doing it (in multiple studies you get an outsized number of people adopting something thats free vs even a very low price, see for example Dan Ariely’s books). It doesn’t bother me at all, but as the article notes, it likely isn’t driving any serious revenue for Apple, either.
I don’t think that $0.99 is petty. I mean we think “oh gosh, how much difference does $12 a year make to a company like Apple”, but it actually makes a big difference to their shareholders when you think about what $12 a year multiplied by 100 million users could be. $1.2 billion dollars right off the top of profits matters quite a lot recently, and I don’t think they’ll get more iPhone users if they give away more free storage. People want everything for free, but if Apple isn’t going to sell your data, you’re going to have to pay for services.
Obviously just my opinion, of course. 🙂 I’d just rather pay and make it an area that they want to focus their attention.
I think that doubling it to 10GB is a much more realistic path forward than making the 50GB tier free. Even Google only gives away 15GB, and doesn’t Dropbox only give way 2GB?
I think an argument can be made that iCloud strategy is like OS strategy back when Apple’d charge $120 or so, then $80, then $25, then free.
Making it free provided Apple with so many benefits in terms of security, communication, and getting customers all on the same technology page. There were also likely efficiencies it brought to the business in the supply chain and product management.
I’m sure the money is nice but the customer confusion, irritation, contortion, etc is probably not worth it. Build it into the price of the product and be done with it. Make it a core benefit of buying Apple vs the other platforms.
I agree, which is why I use Apple and not the competition. Rather pay for what I want/need without the illusion of “free”.
May well end up this way. As long as Apple charges a premium price for premium products and is able to keep margins at an acceptable point, might be their strategy.
Printers are a great idea – in theory. In practice, there are far too many issues for far too many people.
i dont think its a minority. for most people, stuff just works — your phone backs up, your music purchases are available, and your contacts & notes sync. all iCloud.
just a vocal minority that loves to bag on it on their blogs/twitter.
Alternately, Apple make basic device backup free and charge for everything else. The 5GB would be a lot roomier without that hit.
Never had an issue or known of anyone with issues.
Nope. I edit across multiple devices all day every day. Haven’t lost a thing.
I use iCloud like most people do, to backup my device, to sync my notes, contacts & photos, etc. I rarely edit a document on multiple different devices at the same time. I also don’t use Page, Number, or Keynote because I am a windows user, not a Mac user and I prefer to use Word, Excel & Powerpoint so that I can use it everywhere. As far as syncing between iOS devices, I don’t have any issues, but I’m willing to be that many people who are complaining are primarily having issues going between OS X (soon to be MacOS) and iOS. Maybe I’m wrong, but that would explain the wide variation of experiences.
I still avoid iCloud whenever possible.
“In theory, communism works. In theory.” — Homer Simpson
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bhvsi0BCEAAaHOc.jpg
Ad me to the anecdotal evidence of decent iCloud experience. Photos syncing just plain works. I just had an issue with a Numbers document not opening on my Mac after using it via web browser login to iCloud, but I fixed it fairly quickly and that’s the first issue I’ve ever had with the iWork stuff in years. Phone backups appear to be working fine, and this week even restored passwords and ApplePay credit cards — with a quick revalidation — to my wife’s new iPhone SE. (I thought you had to do encrypted backup to a Mac or PC through iTunes to get the passwords and all to come over…)
I haven’t taken the plunge into Family Sharing yet with Apple Music, but hope to do so soon since my wife is sending her PC off to her sister and will be using an account on my Mac Mini now for the foreseeable future (foreseeable until we make enough money to get a MacBook for me)
Is there a Godwin’s Law for comparing iCloud to Communism?
I have 50 GB cause it’s cheap. I find the file sync works well, backups are fine. The photo library sync is hit and miss. Have never figured out why.
Me too. I back up to my iMac. I use Google Drive to transfer files. I do have a duplicate backup on iCloud but I consider my local back up the be the “go to” backup.
Aside from that I do things as manually as possible. Less convenient, more reliable. I’ll take reliable.
I did no such thing.
At some point, the man in charge of iCloud needs to answer for it.
How many of you know, the majority of “non tech” users that have a constant “iCloud is full” pop up, which just Annoys them.. they don’t have any iCloud backup, some own iPhones iPads and macs, they should either give a reasonable amount per Device, say 5-10 and your average user will end up with enough to handle email, some backups and iCloud Drive.
If they still persist and don’t drop the price a little, they won’t sell any, and the users will continue to “suffer” as your avg grandma or even many musicians I know, don’t know what exactly it is, or why they should maybe backup their photos or active projects in GarageBand Etc until the SSD fails, or phone is stolen, mum in law just lost a bunch of pictures of her Fresh Outt the bakery grand kid as she can’t “manage’ her iCloud and refuses to pay extra on principle. Myself and dad in law both go on the Five dollar tier which is a bit shouyyt and gouging IMO but the perfect amount to ‘just not have to worry ever and back up everything and sync’. $1 for 1tb per month, or $8 for truly unlimited would work well for PR and I doubt it’s going to be a loss for apple, maybe a loss leader for the beginning until many sign up for unlimited yet only use half a TB etc. look at backblaze they’re doing quite well averaging out “extreme storage users” and your 200mb backuPs for the same price.
I’m glad you’re able to, as am I. But somebody think of the grandmas, and anyone who has no idea of the difference between local, iCloud or other cloud services.
Someone I know’s Facebook was fully hacked the other day, I tried to assist them in securing their other accounts (sigh, that had the same crud password) eventually they sent me a worrying message; ” I fixed it! I held down the icon then clicked the red X”
Again, showing ppl don’t know the diff between local and a huge database with an app or browser based front end … the FB is still hacked and now god knows what else..
Perfect.. that or 5-10 per unique device on your iCloud acct would make a lot of sense. Could be priced into the initial RRP if it isn’t already.
I don’t trust it as my only storage, I typically use the “backup often, and everywhere” policies like most IT departments implement. Local, different “cloud” backups across different continents (meteor or ELE / zombie ? protection) and of course monthly or weekly “versioned” backups in case of file corruption or bad edits etc.
If I could afford it I’d have one of those Mac mini colos that absolutely mirrored everything of my own mini server, for BAU failover style continuation.
I was being a bit facetious. 😉
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for me, i’s working pretty well and reliable. sure, there’s the occasional syncing issue (as with any other cloud services). the only real problem i have with it, is, that transfer speeds are pretty slow. and maildrop – if you count that to icloud – sucks – uploading takes sometimes forever, failed upload attempts don’t vanish and it takes up huge space of harddrive space to work (i recently uploaded a 3gb attachment, and it wouldn’t work unless i had more than 13gb of free space on my harddrive – sending multiple files, multiplies this problem – it just uploads until the harddrive is full and then freezes). but that’s rather one of the increasing problems with quality and usability in osx & iOS – which are far severe and far more pressing than icloud’s, imho.
It is cloud storage you do not trust or iCloud ?
that would make sense – i had to buy the higher tier just to backup my iphone & ipad.
I haven’t lost any data, and I use document sync fairly often.
try again?
I routine edit and sync contacts, photos, pages, and notes on multiple devices. haven’t lost data.
just because it’s happened to some people != all or even most.
nope.
I have had many people ask me what the message is and what they can do about. I explain what it is and how important backups are. Using the “if your phone breaks/gets lost you loose all of your photos” seems to get the message across perfectly. Once they understand nobody has ever had an issue paying $.99/month for more storage. I just do not get what the big deal is. You buy a premium product and yet you can not spend $12/year to back it up ? Really ?
I don’t get the complaints about the price or even having to pay. People will pay more than $.99/month for insurance for their phone but complain about paying $12/year for insurance against losing precious memories ? I don’t get it.
Cough. Your last point is definitely not true. But they haven’t done it recently.
WFM isn’t really a good response to criticisms of iCloud and its related services, IMHO. Everyone who reads and comments on Loopinsight, Daring Fireball, Macrumors, et al is capable of figuring out what Apple’s intent is, working with it, and building a mental model that works for them. And convince themselves the service is just fine. Those who are not so inclined – which is 80% of the human race at least – sometimes get in sync with the design philosophy (assuming there actually is one, which I often doubt) but more often don’t. For them it is a confusing mess, and for those of us in the “family tech support” position an unpleasant, unexplainable, and anger-causing mess.
This. I’m happy that Apple does charge, for exactly that reason (even if I’m unhappy with them on the service for other reasons).
Back in my enterprise software days, that’s the type of response that had me put a vendor on the watch list of potentially unreliable tool suppliers. Works for you – great – I’m happy for you. Doesn’t work for enough other people that the reports are not individual anecdotes but indicate a possible trend; attacking those making the reports for being clueless or trolls is basically self-blinding. Never saw it end well for any software vendor.
If they have 100m people paying it, then your math works. But we don’t know if that’s correct. If it’s 20m it’s $240m. Which is pretty trivial to their bottom line.
The easier thing to do is simply increase the storage we get at each tier – make the free tier enough that it’s sufficient for most people. But it IS (IMO of course) petty for Apple to give you a crappy little amount of storage just to get your to spend 99cents for something adequate.
There’s no such thing as “free” for a datacenter. All the “cloud” is is someone else’s storage units attached to someone else’s server in someone else’s datacenter with a big fat Internet pipe. Look at the size of the solar farms Apple is building to power those data centers – I’m happy that they charge a reasonable amount to support that infrastructure rather than reading my e-mail and selling the summaries ala Google.
Neither – or I don’t trust any Single provider in case of their own emergency or other potentials. , local backup, multiples over different continents as well and maybe another mirror disk at your sister or friends house for quicker restores.
I agree, but 12$ a year for full unlimited or somewhere from 12-48 dollars a year that covers all devices, would be the best apple style “it just works” backup service rather than worrying about gigabytes or anything at all. I expect something like a hybrid of iCloud / Dropbox and backblaze eventually for a much more reasonable price than current offerings. 2tb is not enough for me but would cover most, tho 500gb could do the majority or even less, I need about 8tb for me, small code server and wife’s backups too which is quite extreme but averaged out over all users it doesn’t harm BackBlaze as many of their other users are using hardly any at all.
You’re gonna die alone.
“Oh, jokes. I get jokes!” — Homer Simpson
Seriously.
Nerds ruin everything.