Who Will Rule The Consumer Cloud In 2012?
The consumer cloud, aka cloud computing by consumers, is growing fast in 2012. In the segments storage, sync and notes we have seen Dropbox, Apple iCloud and Evernote as big players. But, who will rule the consumer cloud in 2012?
In this battle of the titans, Microsoft might play an increasingly more important role this year.
Especially because they have claimed that their new Windows 8 will soon bring the personal cloud to billions…
Consumers are massively storing their files on the web, fuelled by cheaper hardware and virtualization.
In 2012, we have seen 3 main types of consumer cloud services:
1. Online storage: Dropbox is reigns in this segment, fighting giants like Microsoft SkyDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive, Google Drive, Box.net and several others.
2. Online sync: iCloud helps Apple users to easily sync their media across devices. Music is the driver here, although video is booming. iTunes Match allows iTunes users to sync their music collection across devices, using iCloud. Other titans are Google Music and Spotify.
3. Online notes: Evernote seems to be the emperor in this region, without many threats to its crown, so far.
Now I will spare you the story about what services I am using and why. More important might be some trends across several segments?
The music freaks seem to be very clear on what they like. But they might be on the move since music cloud lockers and streaming music services seem to be merging.
And cloud lockers like iTunes Match, Amazon Cloud Drive and Google Music, would like to store your music collections. But so would streaming music services like Spotify, MOG and Rdio.
So music lovers are a great niche, but how about the rest of the people in your social or interest graph, what player will they trust their files to in 2012?
I guess that with its existing and huge Windows client base, Microsoft might attack the storage segment hard with its new Windows 8.
Of course Amazon and Google will not easily surrender, but it might be a very hard clash.
I would love to hear your ideas. Who will rule the consumer cloud in 2012 and why?
Source: ReadWriteWeb and InvestorPlace.
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