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Comment by sandieman | Hacker News Reader

Is iCloud going to be a threat for dropbox?

No, because there are even today a lot more non-apple users than there are apple users and dropbox is platform agnostic.

It may cause them some lost sales but nothing threatening.

And in addition, myself including, all apple users are not 100% apple users. I have macs, linux and android and dropbox works with all of those.

That's the big deal breaker really. You have to be pure Apple at home, at work and on your devices for iCloud to be a replacement.

Dropbox's platform coverage is truly impressive: Windows, Mac, Linux (LINUX!! GUI _and_ command line), Web, iOS, Android, Blackberry. And it just works on all of them.

The Linux support is a wise move by Dropbox for two reasons: (1) it encourages an eat-your-own-dog-food culture among employees who use Linux, and (2) it enables Dropbox integration with web-based services in ways the API isn't ready for yet. (File updates get pushed to you via dropboxd; you have to poll if you use the API.)

Apple users tend to be more vocal about what they like. At my last job, by the time the company was acquired, 5 of the 6 people have switched over to Macs.

So I think yes, iCloud will have its effects. Not yet though.

I think iCloud could actually help Dropbox.

Say an iPhone user (who only has a PC) says "Wow, iCloud seems really neat. I wish it worked with my PC though. "

Then his friend says to him "You can try Dropbox. Not exactly the same, but pretty close. Here's an invite. "

I think given how Apple treats its windows software properties (iTunes, Safari, QuickTime, and the Apple Updater come to mind), even if they did make a cross-platform iCloud client, it would probably have the same "ported from mac" rather than a "designed for windows" feel, so not likely to be a big threat.

I think so, yes. iCloud is a very different service but serves a similar purpose. I think ultimately it's a more elegant solution for what most people are using Dropbox for today. It's not just Apple though. It's Google & Microsoft too. I just don't see how DropBox a) makes money b) competes with deep OS integration of other cloud storage solutions.

Only if iCloud will run on every device. Normal people don't use 100% Apple products.

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