>> "Charging users for more than 5gigs of storage in 2015 seems pretty miserly"
That's one way to look at it. But they need to make money somehow and I'd prefer this to advertising or selling my data or trying to convince me to make my life publicly accessible online.
I don't understand why Apple charges for things like this. You'd think it adds up to very little cost for them but adds such value that they would sell more than enough additional Macs and Phones.
I mean... wouldn't their ideal lock-in scenario be if everyone was free to store gigs upon gigs of photos for free so they pretty much HAD stay in the Apple system or suffer the inconvenience of downloading it all and putting it somewhere else?
I agree. I'm a lot more comfortable being charged (and the new pricing for iCloud storage is pretty reasonable). For comparison Dropbox only gives you 2GB free.
Yes, because their profit margins are that low (!).
Considering Apple charges you £500 for a phone and £1000 for a laptop, I'd expect a bit more in terms of default cloud storage. 5 gig (and the 16 gig the cheapest iPhone 5S model offers) are incredibly stingy.
Or including it as part of the iPhone's obscene 50%+ profit margins. That's what Google does with unlimited free auto-backup to Google Plus, and they don't even make money on most of the Android phones sold!
Apple doesn't need this money, just like they don't need the ugly user experience when an iPhone's account gets disconnected from its credit card.
But Apple's culture of nickel and diming for everything has to do with training users to pull out their credit cards. The more often a user hits Pay the easier it is to do it the next time it comes up. As long as the user keeps pulling out the credit card the experience is smooth and makes the user feel like they are part of an elite higher class.
In other words, it's deliberate consumer brainwashing.
I'm not sure how you can consider Apple nickel and diming for everything when they give OS upgrades away for free. Aside from wanting free iCloud storage, please provide a list of other services/products Apple charges for that you believe should be free?
That's one way to look at it. But they need to make money somehow and I'd prefer this to advertising or selling my data or trying to convince me to make my life publicly accessible online.