iPhone and iPad owners will be all too familiar with iCloud’s nagging “upgrade storage” message – and Apple’s tactics are working, according to a new report. The report reveals that the cloud storage service is now the company’s most popular.
According to a new study by CIRP (Consumer Intelligence Research Partners), nearly two-thirds of iPhone and iPad owners (64%) subscribe to iCloud, putting the service far ahead of Apple’s other software services, with Apple Music subscribed to by 42% of Apple fans and Apple TV Plus well below 32%.
Even free services like Apple Podcasts (used by 37% of iPhone and iPad owners) can’t compete with iCloud, while AppleCare plans have plummeted to 17%. And there are good, if increasingly controversial, reasons why that is.
In March, it was revealed that Apple had been hit with a class-action lawsuit alleging that iCloud is effectively a monopoly because of the way it’s implemented. The lawsuit alleged that Apple is effectively forcing people to use iCloud for device backups, which is why it now apparently has a 70% share of the cloud storage space.
iCloud’s free quota of 5GB of storage is certainly paltry compared to rivals such as Google Drive, which offers 15GB before you have to pay. While it is possible to back up your iPhone to a laptop, there’s no easy way to do this to an external drive – for this reason, many opt for the simpler iCloud route.
Apple might claim that a third of iPhone and iPad users don’t use iCloud, which doesn’t exactly sound like a monopoly. But there’s no doubt that iCloud’s deep integration into its devices — including those pop-up messages when you’re running out of storage — gives it a big advantage over competing cloud services, and that’s something that could ultimately unravel in the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) broader investigation into what it sees as Apple’s illegal iPhone monopoly.
An intelligent move
Apple clearly sees Apple Intelligence as the next iCloud, which is why there are rumors that the collection of AI-driven features will eventually come as a subscription service.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, this could take the form of “Apple Intelligence+,” which would unlock additional features for a monthly fee. Still, the outcome of the major Apple lawsuit sparked by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in March could impact how that’s implemented.
Apple described the iCloud monopoly lawsuit as “unlikely” in its attempt to have the case dismissedbut dark clouds are certainly gathering over some of the practices previously accepted as part of the company’s ‘walled garden’ approach.
While we still consider iCloud to be the best free cloud storage solution (up to that 5GB limit) for anyone in the Apple ecosystem, our guide to the best free cloud storage options includes alternatives like Microsoft’s OneDrive. If you’re primarily looking for backing up Snaps, check out our guide to the best cloud storage for photos.