Apple iCloud – Storage and Prices

Since Apple’s iCloud was mentioned as part of iOS 5 most iPhone and iPad owners have had one thing on their mind about the storage – how much is this going to cost?

As you are probably already aware, iCloud lets you store all your photos, music and such-like up in the cloud so that you are able to grab what you need, when you need it from wherever you are.

Ok – a couple of points about that last paragraph. The ‘cloud’ isn’t actually floating around in the sky at all. Your files will live in a huge data storage area on terra firma. Also, you’ll need a Wi-Fi connection in order to access your files.

iCloud: How much for how much?

This has been the main question raised about the new Apple service. Jobs & Co has already mentioned that the first 5GB of data you store would be free – which is nice. The thing is nobody has mentioned what the price is after that if/when you needed more room.

Well, it appears that an extra 10GB will cost you £14 ($20) a year, 20GB will hit you for £28 ($40) a year, and if you’re after the maximum capacity of 50GB then be prepare to pay out £70 ($100) a year.

The price is right

Before you start baulking at those prices let me soothe the pain a little. There’s a lot of things that you’ll be using iCloud for that wont touch your free allowance.

Music, apps or videos purchased from iTunes nor pictures sent to the Photo Stream cloud will count as part of your 5GB freebie!

In that case it starts looking like a good deal doesn’t it? Unless there’s some cloud data-hungry thing in iOS 5 I can’t really see any reason why you’d use 5GB – can you?

What do you reckon?