Dropbox Indeed Balked at Major Acquisition Offer from Apple

[Oletros]

This FORBES article that's coming out is so obvious: these guys see are probably already seeing people jump ship. People probably have mostly music in their dropbox accounts. Once Apple releases their ITUNES MATCH for $25 annual product, people will be dropping off like rats on sinking ship.

And you guess that probably people have mostly music because....

And, apart of this, what a Applecentric view of the world that there is in this forum. Yes, is MACrumors but this title wouldn't make be blind to the fact that there is a wolrd outside Apple platforms.

 

[Thunderhawks]

DropBox will continue on regardless of iCloud. Why? With drop box you can load any type of file you want. iCloud is limited - applications have to explicity support iCloud.

There are more potential users for Dropbox than iCloud, so I don't see why iCloud determines Dropbox's future. iCloud is far less flexible.

Obviously icloud will be developed more and more, upgraded, updated in features etc.etc. and will eventually push dropbox aside.

It wil take a long while, but it will happen.

Let's just remember that the ipod was initially only for MACs then opened to Windoof and they never looked back. Learned from it and make the iphone dual immediately.

Right now millions of users will not even consider icloud, because it does not support snow leopard and we all have lots of older apps, which either will never be updated or their new versions are just bad (Quicken for example, Rosetta stuff etc.)

Dropbox is just great, but the next thing is always lurking around the corner.

Maybe Steve should have played a song from another Steve:

Take the money and run!

Let's hope the dropbox guys can stay ahead and competitive and won't regret not following it

 

[samcraig]

Anyone can "Think Different."

Not everyone has the goods (or prescience) to back it up.

Well Dropbox obviously does. If they didn't - Jobs would never have been interested in them. Unless you're suggesting that Steve and Apple make 9 figure offers to companies that aren't successful...

 

[d21mike]

For those of you that like Dropbox. Have you considered Microsoft's Sky Drive? I have what I call a Live Desktop Folder on my Mac and 3 Windows Machine's and whatever I put in that folder automatically Sync between the all machines without any problems. And it is FREE (not sure how much storage you get but I think it is a lot). This is the reason I never really used iDisk.

 

[dissdnt]

The real question is what do they need with 200 more people? Dropbox is probably the most simplest application ever. Copy a file to a folder and it uploads somewhere else. You need 200+ employees to keep that running and millions of dollars in venture capital? Weird.

I guess they are working on more products but who knows. Probably API's and the ability for 3rd party to integrate which would be great but they better hurry up before Apple or Microsoft does it for them.

Microsoft is already starting cloud based stuff with Xbox coming next month and I'm sure they will expand it to the PC platform.

I agree with one commentator. Exit strategy.

 

[jegi]

Why no iDISK in iCloud?

Can someone please explain why this "feature" was not part of the iCloud launch?

I use iDISK as a public FTP folder to send very large files. Without it iCloud is crippled.

 

[*LTD*]

Let me know when Apple releases a version of iCloud that works with the majority of Macs.

What are the majority of Macs?

 

[rwilliams]

DropBox will continue on regardless of iCloud. Why? With drop box you can load any type of file you want. iCloud is limited - applications have to explicity support iCloud.

There are more potential users for Dropbox than iCloud, so I don't see why iCloud determines Dropbox's future. iCloud is far less flexible.

I completely agree. I have documents, music, movies, photos, and even encrypted .dmg files stored in my Dropbox account. Add in the fact that Dropbox works beautifully on every platform, and there's no reason to think that it's going away any time soon. The world does not revolve around OS X and iOS.

 

[davedee65]

Personally I think they should be applauded for wanting to keep their independence and not taking the golden apple. Wrong or right choice at least their future is theirs to control.

I've used Dropbox from the beginning and I've tried iCloud and the two just do not compare. The functionality and non reliance on a specific OS makes Dropbox the serious tool for users who need to transfer/share/collaborate on files whether with colleagues in the same office or those on the other side of the world.

I have no doubt that iCloud will develop and grow and surpass Dropbox, but not yet.

Well done and keep up the good work boys.

D

 

[neil1980]

Have to admit as much as I like dropbox I'd have took the money and ran if I was in their shoes.

At the moment dropbox seem to be in quite a strong position but there seems to be more competition all the time and I can imagine them struggling in the future.

 

[mms13]

Even with iCloud, I will still continue to use Dropbox because it provides features that iCloud doesn't, mainly just straight up file sharing. If I need to send a large file to a friend, I put it on Dropbox and share the public link with my friend. iCloud offers nothing like this.

But even so, I'm not sure why they wouldn't take $800 million...I mean wow. I doubt Dropbox will ever make close to that much on their own.

 

[bushido]

What would you use for file storage (aside from Documents in the Cloud)?

mmmh, lets see ... movies, tv episodes, pictures, program files, list goes on and on

and apple's rules r just to strict. i cant even show other people stuff i "store" on my iCloud without giving them my login

 

[*LTD*]

Can someone please explain why this "feature" was not part of the iCloud launch?

I use iDISK as a public FTP folder to send very large files. Without it iCloud is crippled.

It's conceivable there will be some sort of replacement in the near future.

Jobs went after Dropbox for a reason. If Dropbox isn't biting, there is nothing stopping Apple from integrating a much better iDisk-like service (thus killing the need for third-party solutions.)

If Apple is indeed all about a one-stop solution for everything, it's not unreasonable to assume they'll redo iDisk.

 

[OllyW]

What are the majority of Macs?

Ones that are not running Lion.

 

[*LTD*]

mmmh, lets see ... movies, tv episodes, pictures, program files, list goes on and on

Ok, where would you store all this?

 

[vaclav]

Doubtful. The real reason why Dropbox is super successful is that its platform agnostic: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Windows Phone, etc... Apple would have taken that company, sucked it up, discontinued all clients and probably just come out with the same version of iCloud today. Remember they rarely buy companies for their actual product but for their talent.

Don't forget that not everyone uses all Apple devices, and iCloud is still rather neutered on Windows compared to what it can do in OS X. It only has access to photo stream and nothing else; no app data.

You're right. Per the Dropbox blog their user distribution is:
"66.1% Windows only, 20.9% Mac only, 2.0% Linux only, 7.4% Windows and Mac, 2.6% Windows and Linux, 0.3% Mac and Linux, 0.7% All three"
Source: http://blog.dropbox.com/?p=339

That's a lot of Windows users if you ask me. Moreover, I think Dropbox has a certain level of brand loyalty, especially amongst their most active users. Not to mention that currently iCloud is not as capable as Dropbox.

 

[macsmurf]

Some people like to do their own thing instead of selling out to Apple, Google, or Microsoft. That's a good thing in my book.

 

[tigres]

why should you be interested in dropbox after iCloud release?

iCloud is nowhere near the likes of Dropbox- You have got to be kidding me.

Please, go put a .doc/.pdf/.jpg/.bmp/.wav/.m4r/.mp4/.zip etc etc any place in iCloud.

I'll wait.

 

[bushido]

Ok, where would you store all this?

well i apparently cant do this with iCloud so dropbox

obvs not my whole collection, just when i know i'm going away soon and want to watch a movie later on someone elses computer / device without carrying my external hdds

i cant even put a freakin jpeg on the iCloud

 

[scott911]

i don't get the part about "you can't come to our headquarters" bit.

- surely there must have been more to it than simply thinking Jobs seeing the building will give away all the secrets!

 

[RobertMartens]

u cant even save files on iCloud since they got rid of iDisk...

iCloud is useless if u dont have an iDevice + u can't - like i said - even store any file u want.

Just a request, but generally speaking this forum doesn't use this 'text type' short hand. Thank YOU.

 

[justinfreid]

Doubtful. The real reason why Dropbox is super successful is that its platform agnostic: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, Windows Phone, etc... Apple would have taken that company, sucked it up, discontinued all clients and probably just come out with the same version of iCloud today. Remember they rarely buy companies for their actual product but for their talent.

Don't forget that not everyone uses all Apple devices, and iCloud is still rather neutered on Windows compared to what it can do in OS X. It only has access to photo stream and nothing else; no app data.

I agree. In addition to being platform agnostic it's sufficiently integrated into each platform (even iOS Apps, while not the OS itself) that you don't have to think twice about whether it'll work easily. Plus, they have a useful web interface that can work in a pinch.

Apple probably would have LaLaed the product and rolled it into an updated iDisk.

 

[dashiel]

The thing is iCloud and Dropbox have two entirely different philosophies. Dropbox is about having a hard drive in the cloud. iCloud is about changing a fundamental paradigm of computing, effectively eliminating the idea of saving or file systems. Dropbox is a transitional solution, it might be possible for them to forge a similar path, but it will be incredibly tough as they don’t have the same access to hardware/software that Apple does. As others have suggested this was most likely a talent acquisition rather than specific technology.

 

[hitekalex]

With Amazon, google, Microsoft, and Apple coming out with their own cloud based solutions for their given products, I don't see Drop Box having much of a future. Perhaps Jobs was a bit blunt calling them only a feature (if he actually said that), but I totally agree with this.

There is NO other cloud solution (be it from Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or Apple) that comes anywhere near in usability, flexibility and cross-platform support to what Dropbox offers. Dropbox is the clear market leader in the Cloud Storage space. As long as they keep their focus and execution - there no reason why that should change.

To say that "Dropbox has no future" would be like saying in 2009 that NetFlix had no future because Walmart and Blockbuster decided to enter DVD rental/streaming market. Completely missing the point.

 

[*LTD*]

iCloud is nowhere near the likes of Dropbox- You have got to be kidding me.

Please, go put a .doc/.pdf/.jpg/.bmp/.wav/.m4r/.mp4/.zip etc etc any place in iCloud.

I'll wait.

Exactly the point.

iDisk is now neutered, more or less, with iCloud's release. I've turned it off completely and just use Dropbox, waiting for Apple to offer an iCloud-integrated solution.