seanmonstar

Ben Brooks wrote this regarding what is gained by improving iCloud:

Platform lock-in. If all your data lives in iCloud and not Microsoft or Google, well you are far less likely to undertake such a large data migration.

That’s certainly great for Apple, but no one else. Lock-in is the enemy of competition. It’s why social networks don’t really have to compete over the best experience. And it’s why so many people prefer keeping their notes in plain .txt files, because it’s easily tranferable.

Lock-in is never good for users.

John Gruber on the threat of Google:

A different perspective would be that Google is the bigger threat, and that using Apple products is a way to better protect our privacy and personal information.

This was in response to Dave Winer suggesting why he uses Android:

If there is no alternative to iOS then Apple will have exclusive control over what makes it to market. That is a future none of us should want to live in.

I agree that both threats are very real. Which is why I hope neither wins, but that they continue to compete, forcing each other to be less evil.