Apple Defeats Lawsuit Related to iCloud's Measly 5GB of Free Storage

[turbineseaplane]

At this point, the days of Apple ever doing anything for the simple good of their customers are gone.

100% agree -- What I don't understand is folks who defend them and haven't updated their takes on all this to reflect the realities of modern Apple under Tim Cook

Other than the name and the marketing -- the company bears very little resemblance to the one so many of us used to love

It's been fully "Wall Street'd" and "Ops-Guy'd"
i.e. Fully Tim "Cooked"

 

[cocky jeremy]

They are under no obligation to give out any storage for free. I don't understand this mindset.

I don't think it should be expected for free, but the amount you can purchase is pretty pathetic.

 

[CopyChief]

Is 5GB in today's world ridiculous? Absolutely.

Is Apple under any obligation, legal or otherwise, to provide any more for free? No.

I simply don't understand the legal standing here.

 

[sw1tcher]

The problem is there’s no penalty for these frivolous lawsuits. We’re all paying as Apple customers for these scams. The plaintiffs should have to pay Apple‘s lawyer.

Right.

If all these "frivolous" lawsuits stopped, Apple would start lowering their prices. For instance, we'd seen memory (e.g. 16GB to 24GB) and storage upgrade (e.g. 256GB to 512GB, 512GB to 1TB) prices get cut in half to $100 per upgrade instead of the current $200.

 

[cjsuk]

The jump from 200GB to 2TB is unfortunate. Still nothing in between?

Got 400Gb here. That is 200Gb on Apple Family then an additional 200Gb.

 

[DigiH]

Long story short all I have is a galaxy that's it.

Your Signature:
 iPhone 13 Pro Max 256 GB
 iPad Pro 11’’ 2020 256 GB

So which bit is true now? 😛

 

[sw1tcher]

5GB is basically 0GB, as it's too tiny to be useful

I belive 5GB of Apple storage is "analogous to" 10GB of Android storage

 

[Lyrics23]

It’s not the amount of free storage that’s the problem, it’s how that free storage is often used unknowingly and then scary messages about your storage being full encourage people to subscribe to make the problem go away, rather from actual need or desire.

I’ve had multiple family members come to me for tech support about this exact issue (it’s not just Apple, Google does it too).

There’s no real need for them to subscribe, but they feel pressured into it because understanding exactly what this storage is being used for isn’t obvious, and clearing used iCloud storage can be scary if you don’t want to lose your data (or photos).

For the less tech-savvy, these “Your storage is full” messages are written quite alarmingly, and when you pair that with a default setup process that seems designed to channel users into signing up for a free tier that’s inevitably going to fill up (such as with default backup settings set to back everything up, including storage intensive options like photo backups). It’s pretty anti-consumer behaviour.

 

[jwsf28]

I’m sorry, if you’re too poor to pay $1 a month for storage, you have no business buying Apple products in the first place.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I’m sorry, if you’re too poor to pay $1 a month for storage, you have no business buying Apple products in the first place.

Conversely, the most valuable company in the world shouldn't be trying to nickel and dime folks out of an extra dollar per month -- most especially given the premium pricing of all their products to begin with.

It flies in the face of how they like to market their brand and be perceived by consumers

Apple should make 50GB iCloud the default and do something "pro consumer" for the first time in a LONG while

 

[MacsRgr8]

I don't think it's the $1 a month as a "price" what is putting people off, I think it is the fact that a payment is required at all, i.e. the act of needing to register your card etc. Even if it would be $0.01 a year.

 

[ikramerica]

At 5GB you might as well not be using it for any sort of back up or file sharing.

5GB is basically for iCloud Drive only and it’s fine for that for light use. You can keep vital backups there, using encryption at your end which is then encrypted again by Apple.

 

[AppleSOS]

I don't think it should be expected for free, but the amount you can purchase is pretty pathetic.

It's less than $1 for 50 gb... I can't see why anyone would need more than that unless you are storing crazy amounts of photos in iCloud, in which case you should expect to have to pay some money to store them online.

 

[Bobcat32]

Your Signature:
 iPhone 13 Pro Max 256 GB
 iPad Pro 11’’ 2020 256 GB

So which bit is true now? 😛

OH geez that iPhone 13 was stolen then I got the 11. And the iPad got wet and drowned in a rain storm. Am kind of a hobo lol I'll update lol

 

[turbineseaplane]

It's less than $1 for 50 gb... I can't see why anyone would need more than that unless you are storing crazy amounts of photos in iCloud, in which case you should expect to have to pay some money to store them online.

If it's that cheap, at Apple pricing, it should be included for free

When you're pointing out how little $1/mo is, flip this around and look at how absolutely miserably cheap Apple are being.

Perhaps they could donate some of the 400%+ markup they charge on component upgrades?

 

[grantishere]

Fighting this lawsuit probably costed more than just raising the free storage tier

 

[Apple_Robert]

I agree with the ruling. I think the plaintiffs were trying to strongarm Apple with their entitlement philosophy.

 

[CharlesShaw]

... What I don't understand is folks who defend them and haven't updated their takes on all this to reflect the realities of modern Apple under Tim Cook

I guess I don't understand why so many have chosen to make rage against Apple and the CEO a driving force in their lives, or at least the primary focus of their discussions. I guess it's just for sport, since they continue to buy into the ecosystem. Life is too short.

 

[FSMBP]

They are under no obligation to give out any storage for free. I don't understand this mindset.

They also don't obligate to give iMovie/Garageband for free - it's a bout customer experience. If it was a free open market where you could easily pick your cloud provider, people would move to competitors.

 

[chrono1081]

They are under no obligation to give out any storage for free. I don't understand this mindset.

Same. It’s exhausting.

For most people 5gb is completely fine. They don’t use much at all. I’d you need more you pay more just like every other storage solution out there. I pay for the 2tb plan because I use it.

 

[ZeroInspo]

Using the logic on display in this thread I have come to the conclusion that Apple should give away their phones too, and the tablets and computers. In fact we should just nationalize Apple.

 

[ignatius345]

None of this would matter if there was the ability to do a whole-device backup like we have now, but pointed to a different storage provider. That part should be interchangable, so there's competition and Apple is free to offer a tiny 5GB free tier if they want but people can take their business elsewhere if they choose.

Right now on my Mac I can install Carbonite or Dropbox or Google Drive or however many other storage providers, and it doesn't matter much whether I'm paying for iCloud storage. Why can't I do that with iOS or iPadOS? It's nice they're finally (after legal pressure) letting people choose their default apps, but that needs to go further. And that goes for apps like Photos as well -- they should all be storage provider-agnostic and based on some open standards that allow for actual competition.

 

[russell_314]

Right.

If all these "frivolous" lawsuits stopped, Apple would start lowering their prices. For instance, we'd seen memory (e.g. 16GB to 24GB) and storage upgrade (e.g. 256GB to 512GB, 512GB to 1TB) prices get cut in half to $100 per upgrade instead of the current $200.

Regardless, if you’re upset about Apple’s pricing scheme for upgrades, it doesn’t change the fact that frivolous lawsuits cost consumers money. Who do you think pays for these lawyers? Do you think it comes out of Tim Cook’s salary? When you buy an iPhone, a portion of that is to pay for lawyers. It’s not just Apple. It’s every corporation out there.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Using the logic on display in this thread I have come to the conclusion that Apple should give away their phones too, and the tablets and computers. In fact we should just nationalize Apple.

This feels like an overreaction

It’s a pretty fair complaint that the included iCloud 5GB is wholly inadequate in 2025 and beyond and more should be included with your account

 

[russell_314]

I agree, but 5GB is obscenely low by 2024 standards. It should be at least 20GB to start, especially since many more things are turned on my default syncing to the cloud. The amount of times people have come to me saying they're out of storage and what do I do is insane lol

It literally pops up, saying what to do. You buy more storage if you want iCloud back up. If you were out of milk at home, do you need to call and ask someone what to do?