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by Seth_Kriticos 5373 days ago
Considering that DropBox is building on Amazon cloud storage (S3) and Google have their native storage arrays, I'd be very worried, as Google can offer storage much cheaper.

If you check Google services (docs, mail), you get for just $5 -> 20GB of storage for a YEAR (or for $20 -> 80GB).

DropBox takes $9.99 a MONTH for 50GB, or around $120 a YEAR!

User lock-in is powerful, but if a competitor can offer a product for a magnitude less in price, I'd be friggin' worry my posterior off.
2 comments
jpdoctor 5373 days ago
> Considering that DropBox is building on Amazon cloud storage (S3)

...which tells you the only logical acquirer. Any other will have a middleman of S3 to pay, which will make the financials not very sensible.

If GDrive releases and is viable, Dropbox should put on their best push-up bra and fishnets, and head over to seattle as soon as the mascara is dry.

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alastairpat 5373 days ago
I realise that it's not the most reliable source, but I read a rumour [1] that Apple offered $800m to acquire Dropbox and they declined. It's possible it simply wasn't enough, but perhaps they're not interested in selling.

[1] http://www.macrumors.com/2011/09/09/dropbox-may-have-decline...

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mmahemoff 5373 days ago
Convenient as the other only logical acquirer is also in Seattle.
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jpdoctor 5373 days ago
Do you see MS putting Amazon in their critical path? I easily picture Ballmer saying NFW, but would love to hear why MS would hand such power over to Amazon.
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eggnet 5373 days ago
If Microsoft acquires they would move Dropbox to their own infrastructure, clearly.
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mmahemoff 5373 days ago
They're not exactly mortal enemies, other than when it comes to recruiting Seattle talent. Amazon's pricing is transparent and MS would probably plan to migrate it to their own data centers like they migrated Hotmail from Unix infrastructure, and probably lots of other products.
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chc 5373 days ago
Eh, going by the App Engine pricing nonsense, I wouldn't necessarily count on Google's current prices reflecting anything beyond "This sounds like a nice number." It's entirely possible that if people started using up more of their allocation (as they would with a Google Drive), the prices would skyrocket.
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