Larry Dignan at ZDNet says that Google’s cloud storage price-break is a big missed opportunity, because Google “can’t figure out a lightweight desktop client that would back up your entire computer.” I suspect that Google could- and probably secretly has- done that. But by making the storage Gmail and Picasa only, Google stands to steal market share from its competitors. Market share that lands on Gmail and Picasa pages where ads can be displayed.
No one makes money hosting files in the cloud for free or close-to-free. But force more of the herd to the application front-end, and you can serve more ads. That’s where the money is. Or, at least, that’s where Google and 99% of the rest of the internet believes the money is.
As I noted months ago, I think Google’s failure to dominate the cloud storage space is by design, not by inability.
Having said that, I’d love to be proven wrong. But I’m not holding my breath for a full featured GDrive at these prices.
