Initially launched in October 2011 [1] -- 12 years, 6 months to date -- Apple's iCloud file cloud storage was a relatively latecomer to the market. However, Apple's experience in file cloud management services goes all they way back 2001 with iTunes[2], making it an industry pioneer.
Apple's edge has always come from its dominant hardware market position with the iPhone and Mac. With a captive market of devices, Apple took the music distribution market by storm with iTunes, allowing users to download music and share it between their Apple devices, a market segment they have managed to dominate to date. Nevertheless, the technology used by iTunes (e.g. sharing, synchronization), undoubtedly set the seeds for its general purpose file cloud storage dubbed iCloud.
Apple states it has 782 million users as of February 2016 [3]. Apple offers file cloud storage plans ranging from free in perpetuity -- as in you'll never-ever have to pay a dime -- and three paid plans for: $0.99 (USD), $2.99 (USD) and $9.99 (USD) a month.
| Provider.Plan | Categories | Price | Storage limit | Free trial | Download limit | Bandwidth limit | File size limit | Versioning & history | Access tools | Share files | Share folders | Comments | Streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Provider.Plan | Categories | Price | Storage limit | Free trial | Download limit | Bandwidth limit | File size limit | Versioning & history | Access tools | Share files | Share folders | Comments | Streaming |
| Apple iCloud (Paid) | 1 2 3 4 5 paid | $0.99/month (50 GB), $2.99/month (200 GB), $9.99/month (2 TB)[1] | 50 GB, 200 GB, 1 TB or 2 TB* [1] | No* | Unlimited* [1] | 1000 photos per hour, 10000 photos per day, 25000 photos per month* [1] | 15 GB[1] | No[1] | Standard browser (via icloud.com) and native apps for Windows, Mac & iOS[1] | With a link (password available)[1] | No[1] | Yes[1] [2] | No* [1] |
| Apple iCloud | 1 2 3 4 5 free | Free[1] | 5 GB* [1] | Always free[1] | Unlimited* [1] | 1000 photos per hour, 10000 photos per day, 25000 photos per month* [1] | 15 GB[1] | No[1] | Standard browser (via icloud.com) and native apps for Windows, Mac & iOS[1] | With a link (password available)[1] | No[1] | Yes[1] [2] | No* [1] |