iCloud Is Like a Roach Motel You’ll Love Anyway | Epicenter | Wired.com

iCloud Is Like a Roach Motel You'll Love Anyway | Epicenter | Wired.com

Apple's launch of iCloud makes its devices even more contagious, because now there isn't just a metaphysical connection between Apple's products, but a literal one, in iCloud. As Wired.com notes in itsreview of iOS 5 (which also rolled out Wednesday),

Overall, in its current state, iCloud is mostly beneficial for people who own an Apple family of products: a Mac and at least one iOS device. I doubt Windows users will get much out of iCloud, because the only easily usable feature available to them is PhotoStream.

And that's really Apple's goal: to reel you into its ecosystem with the convenience of iCloud. If you own an iPhone, now it makes more sense than ever to have a Mac and an iPad, versus a Windows PC and an Android tablet, just to take advantage of iCloud.

Exactly. The iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch are already incredibly "sticky" devices, because after you've bought some apps, switching to Android or Windows Phone 7 means throwing out all of those apps as well. But after today, it will also mean throwing away your ultra-convenient iCloud storage account, because Apple would sooner give away iPads for free than port iCloud features to Android. After today, one Apple device increases in actual value if you own a second.

Apple's new strategy, to borrow an unfortunate metaphor, is akin to that of a roach motel: Once Apple lures you into its ecosystem, you're already likely to stay put, and iCloud will make that doubly true. This strategy is not wrong or evil, just smart. But it could end up costing you money over the years. Unless you want to chuck it all and start over, you'll only be buying hardware and much of your software from a single company.

See the whole story here: 

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/10/icloud-roach-motel-2/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Ftechbiz+%28Wired%3A+Tech+Biz%29

Sent from my iPad