Apple iCloud vs Google vs Amazon Cloud Drive vs Dropbox vs Microsoft SkyDrive
It's been a busy time for cloud storage and music services and Apple's launch onto the scene with Apple iCloud has officially declared it global war. The lines have begun to blur as to what you own …
Context & Ripple Effects
The comparison lands six weeks after reports that Apple was internally testing an 'iCloud' that would be more than just music — today's launch confirms that read. With Amazon Cloud Drive already shipping, Google's music beta in the field, Dropbox holding the sync market, and Microsoft SkyDrive repositioned as a consumer locker, Pocket-lint frames the field as five-way war rather than five separate products.
What makes the entry matter is bundling: Apple attaches storage and music sync to hardware it already sells, while Dropbox and the others sell the service itself. The same-day analyst argument that the supposed philosophical gap between Apple's and Google's cloud approaches is overstated adds a second layer — this may be a race to the same destination with different packaging.
First-order effects
- Dropbox, whose entire business is paid sync storage, now competes directly against a free tier from a vendor with hundreds of millions of device customers — its differentiation must shift from 'it just works' to what Apple does not bundle.
- Amazon, Google, and Microsoft must each answer iCloud's device-tied free model: Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music lose the novelty of being first movers in streaming lockers, while SkyDrive's consumer push gets a much louder rival.
Second-order effects
- Pricing pressure moves down-market: if the largest hardware maker gives away baseline storage to protect device sales, standalone providers are pushed toward freemium scale or acquisition, and paid plans migrate up to prosumer tiers.
- Music labels and rights holders gain leverage as every major player now needs licensed cloud-music terms, making licensing deals the competitive moat rather than storage capacity.
Third-order effects
- The 'what you own' blur Pocket-lint flags points at a structural shift: media and files move from user-held objects to licenses attached to accounts, so control of the account — not the file system — becomes the locus of customer lock-in.
- If bundling wins, cloud storage follows the browser/OS path of becoming invisible infrastructure assumed into platforms, shrinking independent storage vendors to niches or exits.
The trend: Consumer cloud storage is shifting from a paid standalone utility to a free feature bundled by platform owners, with music licensing and device ecosystems deciding who keeps the customer relationship.