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...so want you to stay signed into "the icloud"? My cloud is full from the wife's phone back-ups and photos(she had no idea what she was doing) and I don't use it...never have. I never intend to pay Apple to get more space.

However I have found that Apple freaks to F out and sends "alarming" messages if you try to log out of the cloud. I got to thinking today there must be a reason other than the small amount of money they get from people expanding their storage.

What am I missing here?

A few thoughts:

1. Whilst the "small amount of money" each user pays to expand storage seems "small", when you multiply that by 10's or 100's of million of Apple users that becomes real money. The video game industry makes huge profits from exactly this "micro-transaction" strategy...offer the base game for free (or nearly so), and then charge seeming inconsequential amounts of money for optional upgrades and enhancements.

2. Apple uses the iCloud and its "seamless" connectivity with many different Apple devices to keep people "addicted" to their devices and platforms; it's a convenience that keeps Apple customers from jumping ship to others' platforms. To be honest, upgrading from one iPhone to another, or synchronizing content (e.g. photos) between devices is made very easy with iCloud.

3. Having automatic backup to the cloud is a nice way to protect again losing data if the device itself gets borked. Imagine dropping an iPhone into one's swimming pool which immediately and permanently kills the device. Without backup, the data is gone. And, whilst the fault for both the phone's destruction and lack of backup lies 100% with the customer, I'd wager a beer that some customers will complain it's Apple's fault. The avoided bad PR from that, versus the great PR from providing a robust "backup" service, seems like a prudent investment on Apple's part.

I think 02TX996Cab's second point is the most salient - iCloud, like Google Drive / Google Photos / Microsoft OneDrive, is designed to marry you permanently to the vendor's storage platform. Once your content is already living online, it's difficult for most folks to figure out how to migrate their existing content to a different provider.

Currently, I pay both Google and Apple a couple of bucks a month for expanded storage - since I'm platform-agnostic, tend to switch vendors every time I get a new phone, and I've been doing this stuff forever, I have mountains of crap spread across both the Apple and Google ecosystems.

The best answer I have for you is sourced from my old college roommate whom now works for Apple;

People have complete emotional breakdowns when they find out they lost all of their family photos because they were logged out of iCloud (and baby flushed the iPhone down the toilet.)

It's just a protective thing because people lose their minds when they find out their data is gone when the device that "I definitely won't break" gets broken.

Dr_Strangelove (whew!) wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 10:28 am The best answer I have for you is sourced from my old college roommate whom now works for Apple;

People have complete emotional breakdowns when they find out they lost all of their family photos because they were logged out of iCloud (and baby flushed the iPhone down the toilet.)

It's just a protective thing because people lose their minds when they find out their data is gone when the device that "I definitely won't break" gets broken.

Pretty sure there are several variations of data storage devices that can be purchased and safely stored for those precious pics. Besides you wouldn't have to worry about someone's icloud(actually an aging server in somebody's basement) crashing-burning-flooding or just generally taking a dump.

God I'm old.

And you've been outside enough (hopefully) to know that diligence is a lost martial art in 2024.

Just a few days ago I dumped someone's "backup" device into my recycling bin after the bearings in the hard drive spun. Turns out she thought that "backup" and "the only copy of all my shit" were synonymous.

I have a sneaky suspicion that she is not alone in this (mis)belief.

It ain't a backup unless it lives in at least two different places...

Actual quote:
L****e: no this is my BACKUP
L****e: all the stuff I took off my laptop because it wasn't big enough to hold it all

32wildbilly wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 12:59 pm

Dr_Strangelove (whew!) (whew!) wrote: ↑Mon Apr 08, 2024 10:28 am The best answer I have for you is sourced from my old college roommate whom now works for Apple;

People have complete emotional breakdowns when they find out they lost all of their family photos because they were logged out of iCloud (and baby flushed the iPhone down the toilet.)

It's just a protective thing because people lose their minds when they find out their data is gone when the device that "I definitely won't break" gets broken.

Pretty sure there are several variations of data storage devices that can be purchased and safely stored for those precious pics. Besides you wouldn't have to worry about someone's icloud(actually an aging server in somebody's basement) crashing-burning-flooding or just generally taking a dump.

God I'm old.
grumpy old man.gif