Apple Drops Prices for iCloud Data Storage





icloud price drop

Apple has dropped prices for data storage on iCloud. The company announced the changes in conjunction with the release of a new set of iPhones and new mobile operating systems, iOS 8 and OSX 8 Yosemite.

The new pricing was eclipsed by the announcements of the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, and by Apple Pay, a mobile payment platform that allows users to pay with their smartphones. There was also the unveiling of Apple Watch. But the changes are significant in view of similar moves in cloud storage by competitors.

Under the new pricing plan for iCloud storage shown on the iCloud homepage, 5GB remains free. The rest of the pricing under the new plan is as follows:

  • 20GB is now $0.99/month
  • 200GB is now $3.99/month
  • 500GB is now $9.99/month and
  • 1TB is now $19.99/month

iCloud users can choose to either upgrade or downgrade their storage options by accessing the “Settings” app on their devices under iCloud choose “Storage & Backup” and then “Change Storage Plan,” MacRumors.com reports. The new storage options are now live and the prices reflect discounts on old prices with more storage available.

The price cuts come as a number of other cloud storage providers have also started dropping their rates and begun offering more space at a lower cost for digital files and other tools. Amazon, Dropbox, and Google have all recently reduced pricing plans for their cloud storage and services.

Along with the introduction of new iCloud rates and iOS 8, Apple has also unveiled the iCloud Photo Library and iCloud Drive. The company says iCloud Photo Library allows users to share photos across their numerous devices and among different users. iCloud Drive will let users save numerous types of files, including presentations, spreadsheets, PDFs, other images, and more.

In a press release announcing some of the new features, Apple explains:

“Make edits on one device and the most up-to-date version of your documents will be available across all devices, whether an iOS device, Mac®, Windows PC or on www.icloud.com. iCloud Drive brings a whole new level of collaboration between apps, providing seamless access and the ability to work on the same file across multiple apps.”

Apple is releasing information to developers to create apps that will work within iCloud Drive, so that instead of using other apps to work on the stored files, they can be opened and edited from within the system.

Apple introduced iCloud in 2011. And the company unveiled iWork for use within iCloud just over a year ago. The beta version of iWork included simplified versions of apps for document creation and editing, image editing, and other business productivity features.

Image: Apple

11 Comments ▼

Joshua Sophy Joshua Sophy is the Editor for Small Business Trends and the Head of Content Partnerships. A journalist with 20 years of experience in traditional and online media, he is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists. He founded his own local newspaper, the Pottsville Free Press, covering his hometown.

11 Reactions
  1. Is Apple competitive with Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.?

  2. Given the recent security issues, I wouldn’t recommend it even at lower prices.

    • Robert,

      Was it really security issues on iCloud’s part? Are Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. more secure?

    • Or you can make your own cloud for free using an old desktop. Or make a storage server, install teamviewer to your phone and linux computer (I use linux mint) and slap in some hard drives and use teamviewer filetransfer to keep things from phones and computers on there and you will always have access to them and only pay for internet and electricity.

  3. They ought to add more storage every time you add another device to the account, perhaps to the capacity of the added device. That would seem a lot more logical that charging….

  4. I wonder why. While Apple is clearly lagging behind in terms of promoting their cloud storage, I still find it somehow surprising that they will have a price drop. After all, Apple is a brand that is not that fond of price drops not until something is wrong

  5. Why is Apple, and other cloud storage providers, dropping their prices? I mean, it’s great for the consumer that they are, but why the price drop? What’s prompting them to do that?

  6. Whenever i hear iCloud the celebrity hack pops up in my mind. I think Apple iCloud will take time for many to consider as a primary cloud storage. Google Cloud Drive and Dropbox are doing very decent job.

    Robin.

    • Yeah, I now associate iCloud with celebrity hacks too. I don’t see myself paying for storage anytime soon as I don’t need that much, but if I did, I’m not sure I’d go for iCloud because, celebrity or not, what it tells me is it’s vulnerable. This is not to say other cloud storage providers aren’t vulnerable either, but I can only go by what’s happened, not what will or might.