The formation of "four families" in the field of cloud storage

As Google officially launched its own cloud storage products Google Drive, the formal formation of the cloud storage area of the "four big families." So what are their strengths and how will they be interpreted in the future? What products do we choose as consumers?

As Google officially launched its own cloud storage products Google Drive, the formal formation of the cloud storage area of the "four big families." So what are their strengths and how will they be interpreted in the future? What products do we choose as consumers? Let's look at the contrast between the four families:

Google Drive Microsoft Skydrivedropbox Apple icloud

Free space size 5GB7GB (25GB available for existing users) 2GB5GB

Additional storage space 25GB: $2.49 per month; 100GB: 4.99 USD per month; 1TB: 49.99 USD per month; 16TB: 799.99 USD per month 20GB: 10 USD per year; 50GB: 25 USD per year; 100GB: 50 USD 50GB per year: 9.99 USD per month or 99 USD per year; 100GB: 19.99 USD per month or 199 USD per year; 1TB or above: 795 USD 10GB: 20 USD per year; 20GB: 40 USD per year; 50GB: 100 dollars a year

20GB size average annual fee of 29.88 U.S. dollars (25GB per month, 2.49 US $) 10 USD n/a40 USD

100GB size average annual fee of 59.88 U.S. dollars (4.99 U.S. dollars per month conversion) 50 USD 199 USD n/A

File size limit 10gb2gb via browser 300M, while uploading via desktop side unlimited free account 25M, paid subscription account 250M

Desktop clients windows and Macwindows and Macwindows, Mac and Linuxwindows and Mac

Mobile client Android;ios is about to release iOS and Windows Phoneandroid, iOS, and BlackBerry iOS

The key points are SDK, deep integration Search, Google + and Docs, support for public sharing, OCR technology, and if you pay for upgrades, Gmail will get 25GB of space to provide SDK, remote file access, support for Word, PPT, Excel and OneNote Cloud Group editors, public sharing, integrated Bing search one-click Add Files to Dropbox, free accounts can be extended to 18GB, and paid accounts can get up to 32GB extra space with iOS depth integration and Kings Lion

In the four major cloud storage products, in addition to Dropbox is a new venture, others can be seen as the 3 big Internet giant's natural extension products. With cloud computing on the rise, cloud storage seems to have evolved into a platform, a platform that spans traditional operating systems, terminal devices, and not just a single functional product. So in the long run, Google, Microsoft and Apple may have a more competitive edge.

From the above we can also find that, whether Google, Apple or Microsoft, are doing integration, and its own ecosystem products to do integration. Google and Microsoft are using their own advantages in the office and search areas to integrate, Apple is using its own platform and the advantages of the terminal area to integrate, and the emerging start-up companies Dropbox clearly lack of resources, this may be a big challenge it will have to face. As we pointed out in the six Ecosystems series, both users and internet giants want to get all the Internet services they need through an ecosystem and a unified account, whether they are movies, music, reading, gaming or shopping, paying and socializing. Therefore, with the traditional business integration, to build a platform beyond the traditional operating system is likely to be the future trend, those with their own platform of the Giants will have this advantage.

So does it mean that start-ups don't have a chance? It seems to be true at first, but not necessarily if you think carefully. In a few days of Ma's dialogue with Kelly, Kelly said: "Using a platform to develop new applications, or new products that can be applied on other people's platforms, is an attractive new business." If you develop your own platform will be very complex, if you are a new entrepreneurial people, it is better to develop a new product, to get someone else's platform to sell. "This is really the easiest way for start-ups to succeed, and the young teams we know about draw something and Instagram are quick success stories that take advantage of the advantages of others ' platforms."

But if a product appears to be a platform-oriented trend from the start, it is not difficult to build a platform. Like today's Microsoft, Google, Facebook and so on, its products have been set up at the beginning of the platform trend, so start-ups can still build a new platform. Cloud storage, which seems to have a similar trait, is a step closer than the previous operating system, through which it can transcend operating system limits and beyond the limits of terminal devices. So for start-ups like Dropbox, it's not impossible to build a platform of their own.