Steve Jobs was right: Dropbox is a feature, not a product | Hacker News Reader

Steve Jobs was right: Dropbox is a feature, not a product

pandodaily.com

31 pointsazazo23 comments

It's a feature, but it's not necessarily a feature I can see any OS provider committing to providing properly. Because the really really really important part of Dropbox, for me, is that it's the same cloud storage syncing across several OSes.

Essentially, I am unconvinced that Apple/Microsoft/whoever wants to write a wonderfully transparent cross-platform experience which might, to an extent, subvert their own core platform.

I tend to agree. I think Dropbox is the filesystem of the 21st century. iCloud doesn't to it for me, and last I checked, Dropbox was profitable awhile ago. (Correct me if I'm wrong)

We can also be confidant DB isn't worth $40 bil yet, but clearly those investors think DB has plans, that they wont just be static and sit where they are at now. I think they're gonna be a big part of pushing the cloud forward, until all we got infront of us are dumb terminals once again. I see these as possibilities, not inevitabilities, but my money is on DB to pull it off.

Exactly. It's a feature of a product that no one wants to build, so it gets to be a product all on its own instead.

I totally agree. Just because Steve Jobs said it doesn't make it true. You want to take a classic negotiating ploy for gospel be my guest. The fact that DropBox is committed to providing a solution across desktop (Windows, Mac, and Linux) OSes and mobile devices is what makes it worth paying for.

Maybe they'll create an open standard for file sharing, and let every OS owner write their own client to communicate using that standard....

As I write this, I realize how naively optimistic that sounds. :-\

Imagine the implications of sever/client combination bugs. Hello, data loss.

Where I work, Dropbox (and its folder sharing feature) has completely replaced Sharepoint for storing, managing and distributing corporate documents. Just think about the significance of that for a moment.

Deep iCloud integration into BOTH iOS and OS X is what makes iCloud incredible. Unfortunately Dropbox can't achieve this on Apple's platforms.

What Dropbox must accomplish is iCloud-level integration in Android. Pictures, app state, music... it all needs to automatically sync between phone, tablet, and desktop. Dropbox knows this--they're already cutting deals with HTC to be a fundamental part of Sense UI.

But iOS is lost for Dropbox. They will never be able to achieve the kind of deep integration that Apple will build with iCloud.

For those of use without Apple devices, could you please elaborate on what this "deep integration" consists of, in particular ways in which it surpasses Dropbox?

Also, at the end of your comment, you say "that Apple will build", implying that some of iCloud's deep integration is yet to be delivered. Is this correct, or did you mean something else?

As tech companies normally do, I suspect many will offer their own iCloud type service, like Microsoft already has.

What I think Dropbox should do is offer their API and storage to companies who can brand it as their own for one large fee. Then the company can offer it to their users for free as an incentive to use them, or for a small fee as a cheap integrated cloud storage solution. I'm thinking companies like Verizon would embrace this, or maybe Google for their ChromeBooks.

Dropbox is a very good short term solution but I do think ultimately iCloud, Google's upcoming service, and Microsoft's SkyDrive will win-out. Being cross platform is an asset today but we're clearly moving towards a world where the cost of using multiple platform is just too high for most people. They will stick within the same ecosystem because it's just much easier.

Even if every person picks one "platform" (e.g. All Apple products with iCloud) and sticks with it, they still need to share files with each other, so there's still a need for Dropbox (or more generally, cross-platform file syncing).

Agreed. You may end up going with one platform, but I'll never have all my collaborators on my platform of choice.

I don't think it's lost so much as never attainable. Apple's position on making the "whole widget" is widely known. They were deluding themselves if they thought they, a third party, was going to achieve deep integration into an Apple operating system.

I am not sure I understand why the author feels that the 'perfect syncing' tool has to be free, or close to it? Syncing files between multiple devices isn't something everyone needs, or wants, so it's a premium function. For my needs, Dropbox is perfect.

A useful element of Dropbox is the shared folder stuff, as a way of passing files which are too big to email to someone else, without having to deal with web hosting. If you tell someone "go spend $X to sign up so I can send you a file", it pretty much kills that feature.

Admittedly, I'm not certain that this is actually essential as a core element of Dropbox.

It's interesting that he says:

"There’s no way, as far as I know, to keep my IM windows synced between devices."

Trillian introduced this feature around a year ago:

http://blog.trillian.im/?p=1949

http://arstechnica.com/software/news/2011/03/hands-on-trilli...

It's sometimes buggy, but it's definitely the first client to offer such a feature.

Meebo has had this feature for many many years.

but meebo is web based, and it isn't as good as a desktop chat client.

Meebo has a native iOS client.

Dropbox does 1 thing beautifully – sharing and syncing files across different platforms. Alot of people are over looking the sharing aspect.

That’s it and that’s all it needs to be. It doesn’t try to be all flashy and start adding more features on top of a core and proven principle. No it doesn’t need to start syncing screens. It doesn’t need to sync your drive states. It doesn’t need to start syncing your calendar. Etc etc.

It's more akin to a service than a feature. And there's nothing wrong with being a service!

Of course, in the Jobsian view of the World, everything is a feature and there are no 3rd party products.

It's not a feature, it's not a product, it's a platform.

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