On Monday, Apple launched its iCloud website for developers, and, in the process, unveiled the pricing structure for its hotly anticipated cloud service. Apple will provide iOS 5 users with 5GB of storage for free. Music, apps, and books purchased on iTunes will not count toward that 5GB, nor will photos posted to the new "Photo Stream" feature. Those who require more space can upgrade and pay $20 a year for 10GB, $40 a year for 20GB, and $100 a year for 50GB. Is Apple's cloud offering a good deal?
Definitely. It offers plenty of storage space for nothing: "Don't worry about having to shell out more money to Apple," says Nick Bilton in The New York Times. Given that apps, books, and music purchased on iTunes won't count toward the free 5GB, only users with giant non-iTunes media collections will need to fork over the cash for more storage space. The rest of us should be just fine with the free 5GB.
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