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Dropbox days are numbered. That’s if Google, tipped to make an assault on its reign on the storage service, has anything to do with it.
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Rumour has it cloud based storage, a la Apple iCloud or Microsoft SkyDrive, simply called ‘Drive’, is next to emerge from Google’s goodie bag, set for launch soon, insider sources told the Wall Street Journal.
The rival cloud based storage site, would work very well with Google’s existing services like Chrome, Gmail, Docs and Android smartphones and tabs, allowing users to instantly store files, bundles of images and multimedia from e-mail and devices to a secure cloud.
And ‘Drive’ will be hitting out screens “within the coming weeks or months,” and will be available for business and personal use, Google sources told the Journal.
However, the key difference between ‘Drive’ and say iCloud is likely to be you won’t have to be an owner of an Android or Chrome user to use the storage, unlike Apple’s service which is exclusively for iOS users only, although can be used on a PC.
And best of all is the price, which is zero.
That is unless you own massive files, at which point Google will sell you space for a fee, similar to current leader Dropbox, set up in 2007, which has been a hit among web users, who can share documents, photos and videos with others online.
The cloud service currently boasts over 45m users globally is free up to 2GB and $9.99 a month for 50GB and 100 gig for $19.99.
The Silicon Valley start-up was voted among the “5 most admired companies” by Forbes last year, who said “if you don’t use Dropbox, you probably should” – probably one of the highest endorsements a company set up by two MIT graduates can get.
And it looks like Google, too, has sat up and taken notice.
“Google’s Drive is one of several recent attempts by the Internet giant to catch up to smaller companies in hot new areas,” according to the Journal report.
Google+, also trying to play catch up with Facebook’s domination of the social network scene being another clear example of the, now ageing, 1990’s tech start-up is attempting to compete with the new kids on the block at Silicon Valley.
And on other Google news, its first ever retail store could be set up in recession torn in Dublin, Ireland, its European base (and local tax haven), if its latest planning application is anything to go by.
(Lets hope Mr Taxman is reading).
