When it comes to cloud services, Apple has been lagging behind its rivals for quite a while, but this week, the tech titan took some steps to play catch-up.
Most notably, Apple announced that it plans to drop the price of cloud storage plans later this year, offering customers more space than they get now for less than what they’re currently paying.
o Apple’s upcoming iCloud plans: 5 GB for free; 20 GB for $0.99 per month; 200 GB for $3.99 per month.
Apple also said it will offer plans that range all the way up to 1 TB, but it did not specify pricing beyond the 200 GB option. The company also did not say when these plans will become available.
The upcoming iCloud pricing structure will make Apple a more attractive option when compared to some its rivals. Here’s how they stack up:
o Google Drive: 15 GB for free; 100 GB for $1.99 per month; 1 TB for $9.99 per month; 10 TB for $99.99 per month; 20 TB for $199.99 per month; 30 TB for $299.99 per month
o Microsoft OneDrive: 7 GB for free; additional 50 GB for $25 per year, about $2.08 per month; additional 100 GB for $50 per year, about $4.17 per month; additional 200 GB for $100 per year, about $8.34 per month
o DropBox: 2 GB for free; 100 GB for $9.99 per month; Unlimited storage for $15 per month per customer; requires at least five users. This means there’s a total minimum price of $75 per month.
o Box: 10 GB for free; 100 GB for $5 per month; Unlimited storage for $15 per month, per customer; requires at least three customers. This means there’s a total minimum price of $45 per month.
For customers who are looking for storage in the range of 20 GB to 200 GB, Apple’s new pricing makes it a more affordable option than Microsoft, Box and Dropbox. The new pricing also makes it more comparable to Google’s pricing.
This is good news for Apple fans as they will surely be using iCloud a lot more going forward. The company on Monday said that once OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 are released this fall, all photos taken on iPhones and iPads will be saved to iCloud so that users can access their pictures through any of their Apple devices. OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 will also introduce iCloud Drive, a special folder where users can save their files to make them easily accessible through any of their Apple devices and Windows 8 computers.
With iCloud Drive and the iCloud update for the Photos app, Apple users will need all the cloud storage they can get.
