iCloud Apple vs Google Cloud Pricing

[kshitijshah]

How long can Apple hold out on premium pricing for only cloud storage. Apple charges USD 9.99/month and straight jump to USD 29.99/month without any option for a discounted annual plan.

Google on the other hand now offers much more value in its USD 19.99/month AI pro plan with a Gemini subscription and 5TB storage with an option for annual option of USD 199.99/year.

I hope to see Apple offer much more with its icons storage or even reduce prices for its existing storage only plans. They should at least offer something in between the 2TB and 6TB tiers.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

That’s not necessarily a true comparison. Apple would much rather push you to Apple One while Google pushes you to AI Plans.

Both still offer legacy storage only plans but would rather bundle you their respective services.

 

[FreakinEurekan]

The fact is that Apple's product in this case, is simply the cloud storage itself. Google's REAL product is information - about you, and sold to advertisers and others. So a direct comparison on pricing is difficult.

I would also prefer Annual pricing at a discount; as I recall that used to be available several years ago for iCloud storage under their previous pricing structure. But they're eliminating annual plans and pushing more toward monthly across the board - AppleCare+ or Apple TV+ for example. Annual options still "exist" for some portions of those, but not for new programs like Apple One or AppleCare One. I'm sure they have their reasons; I don't know what those reasons are.

 

[cynics]

I thought I would compare the 200gb plans since that's what I'm using.... I think its fair to say they both have odd pricing, especially considering Googles 200gb plan is more expensive even on a massive sale..



It appears Apples focus is privacy and security based while Googles focus is AI and monthly AI credits? Not sure what an "AI credit" is but personally that isn't a value adder, if anything it's a value subtractor. Googles white paper specifically says not to share sensitive or personal data with Gemini but they integrate it into the cloud storage?