If you think iCloud and Dropbox are the same or that one cancels the other - you don't get what either service provides. Period.
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Dropbox Indeed Balked at Major Acquisition Offer from Apple
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If you think iCloud and Dropbox are the same or that one cancels the other - you don't get what either service provides. Period.
Dropbox currently does everything! It allows you to share folders publicly, sync data between PC, iPhone, Android, Mac - you name it, it does it. I don't see Dropbox going anywhere.
The current Microsoft solution is crap.
I'm so impressed with iCloud, but at the moment it's limited. Plus Apple are unlikely to open it up like Dropbox. Can you see Apple letting Windows users sync their docs, music & photos to the service any time soon?
DropBox should be careful what they do:
http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/
If Apple turns to another company or bakes something in-house we may see crying "true story" again.
PS. I know Dropbox is less prone then Panic was, because it is multiplatform.
http://panic.com/extras/audionstory/
If Apple turns to another company or bakes something in-house we may see crying "true story" again.
PS. I know Dropbox is less prone then Panic was, because it is multiplatform.
The problem is, while I actively use Dropbox now, I'm perfectly happy walking away from it if another solution appears on the horizon; in other words, it's the feature set I like and not necessarily the product which is why at some point, Dropbox is possibly looking at a bleak future...
Cool name, great feature set, but inevitably simply a software solution begging for a replacement at some point.
Cool name, great feature set, but inevitably simply a software solution begging for a replacement at some point.
Exactly. I couldn't have said it better myself.
I see Dropbox as very easily replaceable in this industry.
My #2 company was acquired.
I didn't see it as selling out or compromising our vision, but as an opportunity to reward our hard work coupled with being able to _extend_ our vision beyond what our organic growth would have [likely] allowed.
It doesn't sound like they were even at the point of discussing details, but I would have at least come up with some terms that protected my original goals and see how that played out.
Now you've got the major players in content/cloud services like Google, Amazon and now Apple with technology in place.
Unless in the next year or so we start hearing about Microsoft Dropbox
I didn't see it as selling out or compromising our vision, but as an opportunity to reward our hard work coupled with being able to _extend_ our vision beyond what our organic growth would have [likely] allowed.
It doesn't sound like they were even at the point of discussing details, but I would have at least come up with some terms that protected my original goals and see how that played out.
Now you've got the major players in content/cloud services like Google, Amazon and now Apple with technology in place.
Unless in the next year or so we start hearing about Microsoft Dropbox
Explain. Seriously. Otherwise, I will just assume that you are a pseudo intellectual contrarian caught up in the mob.
Dropbox vs. iCloud.
Right now, Dropbox syncs files at file system level. Applications do not need to support it on MAC OSX. In case of applications like 1Password, they detect Dropbox and place the backup file in a specific location but otherwise there are no real hooks into Dropbox itself on OSX. IOS apps need to have Dropbox support since there is no shared filesystem on IOS which apps have access to (eg. a global accessible Dropbox). Because of Dropbox popularity, many apps support it but you have to login each app with your dropbox account. This experience could be different for each app and is not unified.
iCloud requires applications to be iCloud aware. Any app for both Mac OSX and IOS needs to be written for iCloud. There is no filesystem or directory structure globally available to applications or the operating system. It is my understanding that it is sandboxed and one app which accesses iCloud cannot share its files with any other App. Apple has API for developers so they can use iCloud within apps.
Because of the popularity of the App store and Apple's influence, many apps in the future will support it. I can think of a few examples that would be really cool... eg. Angry Birds could save your game-save files to iCloud so you can pick up where you left off on iPhone and continue on iPad. Countless ToDo apps or GTD apps can sync now using iCloud amongst IOS devices and OSX instead of using their own awkward methods via own servers (or even Dropbox). Third party browsers can actually save bookmarks in the iCloud and maybe sync with Desktop OSX. When an app supports iCloud, it is fully integrated and nothing really would have to be done by then end-user except maybe giving permission for the app to use some of your precious 5GB iCloud space.
Two different ways of doing things.
Think of iCloud as a place for Apps to seamlessly store data in the cloud so other instances of the App which exist on other devices can access/share it.
Think of Dropbox as lower-level and a place to store entire files to access among different computers and IOS devices.
Dropbox could be made to look and act like how iCloud works and some apps actually do this (like 1Password). The issue is that not everyone will run Dropbox on IOS but everyone will have iCloud because Apple is marketing it. You will see apps shift from Dropbox to iCloud. I mention 1Password a couple times and I bet they will support iCloud very soon as an option instead of Dropbox.
Right now, Dropbox syncs files at file system level. Applications do not need to support it on MAC OSX. In case of applications like 1Password, they detect Dropbox and place the backup file in a specific location but otherwise there are no real hooks into Dropbox itself on OSX. IOS apps need to have Dropbox support since there is no shared filesystem on IOS which apps have access to (eg. a global accessible Dropbox). Because of Dropbox popularity, many apps support it but you have to login each app with your dropbox account. This experience could be different for each app and is not unified.
iCloud requires applications to be iCloud aware. Any app for both Mac OSX and IOS needs to be written for iCloud. There is no filesystem or directory structure globally available to applications or the operating system. It is my understanding that it is sandboxed and one app which accesses iCloud cannot share its files with any other App. Apple has API for developers so they can use iCloud within apps.
Because of the popularity of the App store and Apple's influence, many apps in the future will support it. I can think of a few examples that would be really cool... eg. Angry Birds could save your game-save files to iCloud so you can pick up where you left off on iPhone and continue on iPad. Countless ToDo apps or GTD apps can sync now using iCloud amongst IOS devices and OSX instead of using their own awkward methods via own servers (or even Dropbox). Third party browsers can actually save bookmarks in the iCloud and maybe sync with Desktop OSX. When an app supports iCloud, it is fully integrated and nothing really would have to be done by then end-user except maybe giving permission for the app to use some of your precious 5GB iCloud space.
Two different ways of doing things.
Think of iCloud as a place for Apps to seamlessly store data in the cloud so other instances of the App which exist on other devices can access/share it.
Think of Dropbox as lower-level and a place to store entire files to access among different computers and IOS devices.
Dropbox could be made to look and act like how iCloud works and some apps actually do this (like 1Password). The issue is that not everyone will run Dropbox on IOS but everyone will have iCloud because Apple is marketing it. You will see apps shift from Dropbox to iCloud. I mention 1Password a couple times and I bet they will support iCloud very soon as an option instead of Dropbox.
I never wanted to be locked into a proprietary ecosystem of Windows / MS Office / IE6. Sucks to be on the wrong side, doesn't it? The thing is companies are free to thrive and become dominant (within the limits of anti-trust law). This time Apple is the big guy.
Besides, I'm sure other platforms have their own solutions, proprietary or open. The user is free to choose between the available options.
I agree 100% and its cross platform. They are not really directly completing platforms.
The only trouble I can see for Dropbox is Google's incoming solution. It's had many names in the past, but "GDrive" or whatever you want to call it, is bound to be a success.
I am sure Google will place a cap, such as 5-10GB per user, but that should cover most users needs. I presume they will offer a premium service offering 20GB+.
I am sure Google will place a cap, such as 5-10GB per user, but that should cover most users needs. I presume they will offer a premium service offering 20GB+.
While I don't think that iCloud is a competitor to DropBox (at least not yet, who knows how Apple will improve it in the future), I'm not sure if it was a good idea to turn down the offer or not.
The reason is simple. Competition. There are a number of "similar" services out there.. ie, Box.net, SugarSync, SkyDrive, etc While currently I feel that DropBox is the best of all of these, as they each currently either have limitations or not as widely supported in mobile apps, each one has the potential to either displace DropBox down the road, or cause them to not be so profitable.
For example, Box.net is giving away 50gb of storage if you install the iPad app. Nice. I currently pay DropBox a yearly fee for that amount of storage. Of course, Box.net has file size limitations and no desktop application like DropBox, and no strong encryption unless you pay. There are a few features of Box.net however, that are quite nice, such as being able to leave comments against files (makes sense when sharing).
There's nothing really stopping a service like Box from improving over time and becoming just as good, if not better then DropBox. The more competition that springs up, the better for the customer and for the same reasons are worse for the company. They will either have to lower prices, give out more storage for free, innovate more, etc all of this costs money.
The question is if the amount that Apple offered (and if that also meant retaining a job with Apple working on it) comes out to be less then they ultimately make after operating costs, etc Of course, if they are able to be bought out for more at a later date, then that would be good as well.
Just my take on things..
The reason is simple. Competition. There are a number of "similar" services out there.. ie, Box.net, SugarSync, SkyDrive, etc While currently I feel that DropBox is the best of all of these, as they each currently either have limitations or not as widely supported in mobile apps, each one has the potential to either displace DropBox down the road, or cause them to not be so profitable.
For example, Box.net is giving away 50gb of storage if you install the iPad app. Nice. I currently pay DropBox a yearly fee for that amount of storage. Of course, Box.net has file size limitations and no desktop application like DropBox, and no strong encryption unless you pay. There are a few features of Box.net however, that are quite nice, such as being able to leave comments against files (makes sense when sharing).
There's nothing really stopping a service like Box from improving over time and becoming just as good, if not better then DropBox. The more competition that springs up, the better for the customer and for the same reasons are worse for the company. They will either have to lower prices, give out more storage for free, innovate more, etc all of this costs money.
The question is if the amount that Apple offered (and if that also meant retaining a job with Apple working on it) comes out to be less then they ultimately make after operating costs, etc Of course, if they are able to be bought out for more at a later date, then that would be good as well.
Just my take on things..
No, I understand why people who have created a product and built a company might not just want to see it sold and taken apart. Oh and they just raised $250 million in funding valuing the company in excess of $4 billion.
You are correct, but what the OP was alluding is also correct. Dropbox IS a feature. As the world moves towards IOS/Android duopoly you'll have iCloud on one side and Google cloud on the other squeezing out Dropbox. Maybe not today, but that is the future.
How many people are actually paying for dropbox? I probably now 25-30 people that use it and none of them are paying customers. I mainly use it to sync files for school across all my pc's and ios devices. The free account works just fine. They should have took the 800 million or they need to make some major price cuts to their paid plans.
And you think Windows, Linux & OS X users are going to vanish completely? What about all of Dropbox's business users who use the team shares?
Dropbox Rewind also allows you to restore previous versions of documents, it's a nice option to have. They offer so much to their users at the moment - no one can compete yet.
There is no "right" or "wrong" side to be stuck on. Companies like DropBox make sure of that. DropBox lets me access my data on a variety of platforms. In a fairly transparent fashion. Just because I decide to switch from iPhone to an Android phone next month - I don't have to convert all my Cloud data to another provider. With iCloud - you're pretty much stuck with your iOS gadgets.. with limited desktop-side support.
Oh and Apple is an influential player, but far from "the" big guy. Majority of people in the world still use non-Apple computers.. and non-Apple smatphones. Something that may not be so apparent to many users of this forum.
Look at my example again.
Say you volunteer with 10 other people to run a small business (a charity). Because you're volunteers and have low/no budget, you do not have an office: everyone does the work from home, from their own computers.
You've got a few hundred documents of assorted types -- budget spreadsheets, form letters, policy and procedure manuals, company logos, letterhead templates, meeting minutes, contact lists.
You tell me: what's the best way to set up some kind of system so that all 10 of you can access any document when they need to, including updating, making changes, and adding new documents?
if your that worried, stick your stuff in a truecrypt container then all they have is an encrypted file.
So out of their approximate 30 million users, that's 1.2m customers paying monthly/annual subscriptions.
I've written why in this thread. And so have others. Maybe I should assume you're just too lazy to read the whole thread and/or you, as I originally suggested, just don't get it.
This isn't even a hypothetical situation, this is near enough exactly what I do.
It's a shame the mods can't ban for stupidity because my god half of these comments make me weep.
Dropbox and iCloud are currently completely different services. I can't sync all my workplace PCs to a single iCloud account for file sharing.
If they stay separate that'd be nice, as I really like the folks at Dropbox, but who knows.