Apple Should Acquire Dropbox
Sophia Shoemaker
May 26, 2010
For the most part, I agree with Sachin Agarwal's recent post about MobileMe. However, I'd like to take it one step further. Apple should acquire Dropbox.
Dropbox is a fabulous application. Keeping my data in sync across devices could not be easier. However, if Dropbox were built into Mac OS X and iPhone OS, it could be the founcation for something truly brilliant. At the most basic level, my entire home directory could be kept in sync across my Mac, my iPhone, and my iPad (bonus points if Apple continues to support the Dropbox client on other operating systems). But that's just the beginning.
Since my photos, music, contacts, and calendars are already stored within my home directory, syncing those items would Just Work. Once I connect any device to my MobileMe account, all of that important data would just sync over the air. iTunes could go back to being just a music app. Instead of requiring an iTunes account to use an iPhone, a MobileMe account will be required (and free) for all Mac, iPhone, and iPad users. If my house burns down, taking my Mac and my Time Machine drive with it, all is not lost. I can buy a new Mac, enter my MobileMe credentials, and, after some wireless syncing, be right where I left off before the fire (at least as far as my digital self is concerned).
But why limit this to Apple's apps and my Documents folder? These days I expect third party apps to sync across all of my devices as well. Right now, that burden is on app developers. For example, Instapaper has its own server. That means the Instapaper app has to deal with authenticating you as a user and keeping your list of articles in sync. When you add an article, that has to be communicated to your other devices that run Instapaper. When you buy a new device, you need to enter credentials to sync it with your Instapaper account. This should all be abstracted away by MobileMe.
The next version of Blogazine will keep your blogroll in sync across multiple devices. As a developer of a very simple app, why should I need to run my own little piece of the cloud? Why should I need to deal with logins, passwords, security, syncing protocols, scaling, etc.? Why should my users have to remember Blogazine usernames and passwords? A Dropboxified MobileMe can make this all go away. Once you link a device to your MobileMe account, not only does the Blogazine app itself appear on that device, but your blogroll will be there and will automatically be kept in sync with your other devices. As a developer I simply need to serialize this data to a file (which could be a sqlite database). No doubt some applications will require custom protocols and will want to handle the cloud integration manually. But for most apps, Dropbox-style syncing would be a huge boon.
The future is secure access to all of my data. From anywhere. On any device. Dropbox has provided a simple and elegant implementation of the future. As usual, I'm looking to Apple to usher the mass market into the future.
After buying a $2,000 MacBook Pro, an $800 iPad, and a $300 iPhone, of course this background syncing stuff should be free. Why should I pay for something I can't even see?
