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| Will Apple Increase Primary iCloud Storage? |
In June 2011, Steve Jobs publicly appeared at this year's WWDC and presented iCloud, Apple's new strategy for securing and synchronizing the entire hardware ecosystem.
Apple hopes to eliminate the embarrassment of MobileMe and prepare for the future, where customers host all data in the cloud.
Since it was first introduced for iOS 5, iCloud has come a long way. But the only thing that remains the same is the free 5GB iCloud capacity.
Before iCloud, Apple's cloud product was MobileMe, which only gives 20GB of storage for a paid service of $99 per year. You can purchase additional storage capacity of up to 40 GB.
Unlike MobileMe, Apple's announcement that it would offer 5GB of free storage space was of great interest to its users at the time.
Other ad-supported services (like Google) include more free storage, and some even offer unlimited storage transactions.
Today, 5 GB of free space is hardly enough to store photos and videos that users take while traveling.
For the past 10 years, people have been speculating about how iCloud's basic storage plan will change over time — for example, buying a new Apple device adds an extra gigabyte, or increases base storage if the iPhone's primary storage is used up.
But what happened is that Apple didn't do anything.
Apple has recognized the need for more and more storage space by constantly adjusting costs and increasing the capacity of the paid iCloud tier. But the basic 5GB free plan remains the same.
Free iCloud capacity does not change:
When iCloud first hit the market, customers were able to purchase paid plans from 10 GB to 50 GB for up to $100 per year.
In 2014, Apple switched to monthly iCloud pricing. It offers 20GB for $0.99 per month and up to 1TB capacity for $19.99 per month.
Those levels changed again in 2015. You can get 50 GB for $0.99 per month and 200 GB for $2.99 per month, and the price for the 1 TB plan has dropped to $9.99 per month.
In 2017, Apple added a 2TB plan for $19.99 per month. Less than a year later, Apple canceled the 1TB plan and lowered the price of the 2TB plan to $9.99 per month.
Additionally, users can share 200GB and 2TB plans with up to six family members.
No change in price:
Last year, Apple introduced a new development to the paid service iCloud with the introduction of the Apple One package. This plan combines cloud storage and various Apple content services.
Now, for the first time, you can get 4TB of iCloud. By subscribing to Apple One Premier and iCloud 2 TB plans.
Apple adjusts the payment level often. But the free plan remains the same, only 5 GB.
With Apple's recent focus on services to drive sales growth, it looks like they'll never have an incentive to expand the services.
Competitive services from other companies tend to be more generous in terms of free options.
For example, Google provides 15GB of free space per account to store photos, emails, and files.
5 GB is not enough for users. When the capacity of the free plan matches that of Google's 15 GB plan, Apple users can experience some of the benefits of cloud sync. Then convince them to stick with the paid plan.