Apple's iCloud Could Dent Flash Demand

[Guest]

There is some speculation that cloud services could potentially have an effect on local storage technologies, especially Flash.

Apple's iCloud Could Dent Flash Demand : Read more

 

[sykozis]

Why keep posting crap like this? Considering the simple fact that "cloud storage" is completely unreliable....any user with the least bit of common sense is going to avoid it like the plague. Also, the fact that it's completely impossible to secure data stored "in the cloud"....what reason does any user have to migrate to it? I doubt Apple's iCloud garbage is going to have any great impact on consumer demand for NAND any time in the near future. Unless they can find a way to make "cloud storage" reliable and secure....it'll be a niche market, regardless of internet access.

 

[eddieroolz]

If you live in a country with constant internet connection anywhere, then great. But my 2-week stay in China made me rethink any positive opinion I had of the cloud.

Try not having stable internet for 22 hours of the day and you'll know what I mean.

 

[baddad]

+1

 

[Jerky_san]

Yeah I don't see cloud storage doing that anytime soon considering that most ISPs in the US are capping everyone.. Not really worth blowing your cap while using the cloud..

 

[stingray71]

Can't believe you guys are saying this. Cloud will take off, no doubt, it's still in it's infancy stage and will take time to develop. Am I going to store all my bank passwords in the cloud, no, mp3's sure, with a hard copy on my pc/server as well.

US internet infrastructure is getting better, cellular infrastructure is also moving along nice so internet access will become less of an issue in years to come.

I use both Amazon Cloud for MP3's and Google Music. My experience has been overwhelmingly positive on my humble DSL line.

 

[christop]

I would not use cloud storage over a flash drive ever. Look at all the sites being hacked everyday. Are you going to trust your data to a server that can and will be hacked and risk loosing your data or worse it gets spread to a torrent site.

 

[Guest]

From my point of view especially the cloud concept from apple might have the opposite effect on the storage market as apple does automatically distribute new content to all user's devices and it does not allow streaming.

So for certain users there is no change in required memory on their mobile devices as nothing really changes for them. But a lot of users will find the option to real-time sync their media content quite usefull - but this means all your iDevices should have equal capacities as new media is equally stored on all devices instead of only a selective distribution. So if you have already an iPad with 64GB you will probably run into issues if the iPhone is synced but has only 16 GB of space. I am not sure how this gap will be handled by the sync concept...

 

[K-zon]

The point of this article is anyones guess, i would say or think sometimes. Does bring in many topics though. But to say that, having lesser or no memory in terms of flash on the fact of being able to access the info in the cloud, is just as much saying you no longer probably need RAM, right, if you just increase your Hard Drive cache? Which would probably be nice of course, could add something else there instead. Fan for the board?, Who knows..

But of it at least to say there is anything worth wild for the idea, is probably as interesting as an idea for anything else, right? Otherwise, its "To the Cloud..." right?

It might be something of interest to be aware of for later. Right?

 

[dark_lord69]

I'm not a big fan of cloud storage. There is always some disgruntled employee that could steal your information/files. If you want it safe, store it on a local hard drive.
But the cloud is useful for storage of music, videos and other not so personal files.

 

[Hatecrime69]

[citation][nom]Eddieroolz[/nom]Try not having stable internet for 22 hours of the day and you'll know what I mean.[/citation]

I've used comcast before too

I don't believe this either, i mean i use dropbox but with some people's upload limitations i don't imagine them sitting there for hours/days just to upload stuff to get on their phone wherever they want

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]stingray71[/nom]Can't believe you guys are saying this. Cloud will take off, no doubt, it's still in it's infancy stage and will take time to develop. Am I going to store all my bank passwords in the cloud, no, mp3's sure, with a hard copy on my pc/server as well. US internet infrastructure is getting better, cellular infrastructure is also moving along nice so internet access will become less of an issue in years to come. I use both Amazon Cloud for MP3's and Google Music. My experience has been overwhelmingly positive on my humble DSL line.[/citation]

have you used a cellphone? in america the infrastructure is so slow to change... you cant call it anything but pathetic. its partially because companies love to give the ceos big bounces but not spend money on upgrading their towers and such. look at at&t... how many years did they have to accommodate the iphone, or gear up for higher Internet usage, and they are STILL unable to properly serve it?

the cloud is a joke.
can it be useful? yes, an off site back up for my hdd data.

however just wait till the first time some cp gets uploaded to it, in the same blocks as your data, assuming a redundancy of 3 backups, it wont matter when the government decides to take it and wipe everything out because of one a@#hole.

[citation][nom]christop[/nom]I would not use cloud storage over a flash drive ever. Look at all the sites being hacked everyday. Are you going to trust your data to a server that can and will be hacked and risk loosing your data or worse it gets spread to a torrent site.[/citation]

oh no, my vacation photos to the grand canyon.
my mp3s
my home movies
my homework

most people arent recording hardcore porn, there are some, but most aren't.
most data people would store in a cloud is mostly crap they would also put on facebook.

losing data would only happen if 3 server redundancies were hit at the same time and destroyed, and if your computer simultaneously dies also. a statistical improbability. lets say 10% of hdds fail every 3 months

if you add 2 drives that is a 1% chance that both fail at the same time, a third comes to .1% and a 4th comes to .01%

thats assuming a 10% fail rate, i believe its a little low on consumer side, but a bit high on what a server would use. its also assuming non ssd storage, which is about a 2% fail rate.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]Hatecrime69[/nom]I've used comcast before too I don't believe this either, i mean i use dropbox but with some people's upload limitations i don't imagine them sitting there for hours/days just to upload stuff to get on their phone wherever they want[/citation]

a good cloud implementation will do the uploading as a background process at times you arent useing the computer/internet for anything else.

also, anyone thinking the same thing i am, that apple is just letting you redownload songs? its not like it requires more storage space on their part so why not advertise "free"

 

[tokencode]

All they are doing is making use of data that they most likely were already recording, who purchased which song.

As for any other data storage, I still feel the safest and most useful place for my data is with me.

 

[Guest]

Cloud is definitely on the rise, and unmeterd/unrated data to specific (partner) services will be part of the differentiation bundle.

Connectivity in many countries is not "ubiquitous" but it is rapidly improving.

the big issue I see is storage affordability. Google and Facebook have already conceded to using custom HD banks and storage setups to keep up with the growth of information being stored in the cloud.

I think that will be an issue that will slow a lot of progress in this area.

 

[epobirs]

Long term, I don't think it will matter much. There will never be such a thing as too much local storage. There will never be even 90% reliable wireless, never mind 100%. The wireless service will also never be free. I'd rather pay to have a lot of local storage than got hit for multiple accesses of the same material. Those times I have nothing better to do than watch a movie or read a book on my phone, are also quite frequently when I'm also in a location with little no service. Often I'm the one who is supposed to be making the service happen. This can involve a lot of waiting while people at the other end work on a problem.

One of the reasons I don't own an iPhone is because of how much Apple charges for flash and if you didn't get enough at the time of purchase, well... When got my Nook, for example, I immediately added an 8 GB microSD card to it. I haven't overrun the built-in storage yet but I expect to soon. I like having my whole library with me. If I were buying a new one today, it would be a 16 GB card instead as they've gotten so cheap. And this is for a device where most items are measured in KB. I may never come close to filling it up before dumping some stuff to relieve clutter. But when the cost is so low it makes me feel good to know the capability is there. (You never know when the apocalypse might come and your personal library contains all that remains on rebuilding civilization.)

On something like a tablet with a card slot, I'm going to add whatever offers the most space without paying a premium. This is starting to be 32 GB cards. Wireless has come up short too often. If the storage is cheap, I'm going to bring everything.

 

[joebob2000]

OK, raise your hand if your flash devices (phone, mp3 player, tablet, etc) have more space taken up by personal files than by common media files (music, movies, podcasts, etc)... No? that's what I thought.

The point of the iCloud is not really to take your personal files off of your hands and smear them all over the internet. The point (and the point of this article) is that if Apple users (and lets face it, of mobile device users the apple folks make up a significant portion) start relying on the cloud media storage that Apple is offering (and why wouldn't they, after all) they will see a significant drop in the need for local storage, from 16/32gb down to 1/2gb for what's really "personal" and needs special care.

Nowhere in the article did it say "users are going to put 100% of their content on an insecure and unreliable service" but boy if you all didn't fire away as if it did.

 

[upgrade_1977]

I got an iphone 4.... Can't wait to trade it for a windows 8 phone...