Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#31

Post by dr_ » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 3:37 PM UTC

0x12 wrote: post #27

dr_ wrote: post #15

Jobs never changed his interpretation of things. He did in fact feel cloud storage was a feature and not a product, and that's exactly what iCloud is. For Apple it's a feature that will hopefully tie people in to their iOS devices. And with the likelihood that over time they will offer greater amounts of storage for free or a minimum payment, that's not good for Dropbox. I like Dropbox, I use it almost daily. But so…

What is the difference between you not paying apple or you not paying dropbox? The upside for dropbox is you commenting here that you are using them and that their free tier is usable, so you are effectively a part of their marketing arm. If you really get utility out of dropbox then it is in your best interest that they continue to exist. Sooner or later that might translate into you pulling your wallet. Freemium of…

There is no difference to me, there isn't much difference to Apple but there is to dropbox - their business is dependent on users paying for cloud storage. The problem with that, as I see it, is that in the longer run cloud storage becomes a commodity. Hence Jobs' description of it as a feature, instead of a product.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#32

Post by 0x12 » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 3:39 PM UTC

dr_ wrote: post #31

0x12 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What is the difference between you not paying apple or you not paying dropbox? The upside for dropbox is you commenting here that you are using them and that their free tier is usable, so you are effectively a part of their marketing arm. If you really get utility out of dropbox then it is in your best interest that they continue to exist. Sooner or later that might translate into you pulling your wallet. Freemium of…

There is no difference to me, there isn't much difference to Apple but there is to dropbox - their business is dependent on users paying for cloud storage. The problem with that, as I see it, is that in the longer run cloud storage becomes a commodity. Hence Jobs' description of it as a feature, instead of a product.

Access is also a commodity. That doesn't stop ISPs the world over from making a killing on it.

Yes, it is a feature if you've already got an OS and a bunch of devices out there.

But it is a product if you can do this seamlessly across all os's, and all devices.

Both perspectives are equally valid in this case. In the end to the DropBox guys their product vision was worth more to them than Jobs' feature vision allowed him to pay for it.

Time will tell if that was the right decision, for either party.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#33

Post by wh-uws » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 3:40 PM UTC

0x12 wrote: post #6

DodgyEggplant wrote: post #5

How many people would sit in front of Steve Jobs, refuse to a hundreds of millions acquisition offer, just before Apple enters their market. You got to admire Houston. He might reach the moon.

The dividing line between stupid and brilliant is usually determined retrospectively.

Exactly look at the Groupon/Google situation

(which is still to be determined in my opinion)

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#34

Post by masklinn » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 3:40 PM UTC

0x12 wrote: post #27

dr_ wrote: post #15

Jobs never changed his interpretation of things. He did in fact feel cloud storage was a feature and not a product, and that's exactly what iCloud is. For Apple it's a feature that will hopefully tie people in to their iOS devices. And with the likelihood that over time they will offer greater amounts of storage for free or a minimum payment, that's not good for Dropbox. I like Dropbox, I use it almost daily. But so…

What is the difference between you not paying apple or you not paying dropbox? The upside for dropbox is you commenting here that you are using them and that their free tier is usable, so you are effectively a part of their marketing arm. If you really get utility out of dropbox then it is in your best interest that they continue to exist. Sooner or later that might translate into you pulling your wallet. Freemium of…

> What is the difference between you not paying apple or you not paying dropbox?

Dropbox gets money from you paying for dropbox (it's a service), Apple gets money from you buying Apple hardware, iCloud is just there to give you reason to get Apple devices and keep buying Apple devices.

> Freemium offerings are predicated on statistics and dropbox seems to be doing just fine in spite of the freeloading nature of some of their customers.

Absolutely, but Dropbox's goal will still be to push you on the "premium" side of "freemium".

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#35

Post by channelmeter » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 3:45 PM UTC

keithpeter wrote: post #24

2 gig free, next step up is 50Gb. Anyone else find the big jump means they use the dropbox just for day to day projects? A 10 or 20 Gig price point at $5 a month would be something I could rationally use.

Agreed. I always wished Dropbox had a lower, entry-level tier for around $5/month. I don't need 50gb. I just need 5-10gb.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#36

Post by kylec » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 3:58 PM UTC

channelmeter wrote: post #35

keithpeter wrote: post #24

2 gig free, next step up is 50Gb. Anyone else find the big jump means they use the dropbox just for day to day projects? A 10 or 20 Gig price point at $5 a month would be something I could rationally use.

Agreed. I always wished Dropbox had a lower, entry-level tier for around $5/month. I don't need 50gb. I just need 5-10gb.

There's no need to even have tiers - it would be great if they would just charge you $X/GB/month over the free amount.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#37

Post by ludwigvan » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 3:59 PM UTC

channelmeter wrote: post #35

keithpeter wrote: post #24

2 gig free, next step up is 50Gb. Anyone else find the big jump means they use the dropbox just for day to day projects? A 10 or 20 Gig price point at $5 a month would be something I could rationally use.

Agreed. I always wished Dropbox had a lower, entry-level tier for around $5/month. I don't need 50gb. I just need 5-10gb.

Actually, you can reach that capacity through referrals. I have 8 GB for free, for example.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#38

Post by TomOfTTB » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 4:07 PM UTC

dr_ wrote: post #15

Jobs never changed his interpretation of things. He did in fact feel cloud storage was a feature and not a product, and that's exactly what iCloud is. For Apple it's a feature that will hopefully tie people in to their iOS devices. And with the likelihood that over time they will offer greater amounts of storage for free or a minimum payment, that's not good for Dropbox. I like Dropbox, I use it almost daily. But so…

I think you underestimate the value of marketing.

As fun as consumer services are most people aren't going to pay for them (or will pay very little). The real value in these types of services are Power Users and Business.

As someone who considers himself a power user and who runs IT for a business I can tell you Dropbox has been very effective in its marketing. We use Box.net and my users are constantly pushing for Dropbox because they use it at home and find it preferable. If Dropbox had the features we probably would have switched by now.

Same with Power Users in that word of mouth is likely to influence these people (though again I'd argue features in that the streaming ability of SugarSync is a real advantage for those users).

So as crazy as it seems Dropbox is essentially using you for marketing. Think about it, companies pay millions for a couple minutes of Superbowl time. With that money Dropbox gives millions of users a free service and uses word of mouth to carry it along.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#39

Post by Hitchhiker » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 4:11 PM UTC

kitsune_ wrote: post #14

simplekoala wrote: post #8

"Jobs had been tracking a young software developer named Drew Houston, who blasted his way onto Apple’s radar screen when he reverse-engineered Apple’s file system so that his startup’s logo, an unfolding box, appeared elegantly tucked inside. Not even an Apple SWAT team had been able to do that." Can anyone throw more context around this hack. Technical challenges to accomplish this will be bonus.

http://forums.dropbox.com/topic.php?id=12498 "more pertinent is the fact that none of the integrations we do with the Finder are actually supported by Apple. this means that it takes significant reverse engineering of the Finder to make icon overlays/contextual menu items to work. Apple completely removed support for contextual menu items in SL (it's possible to have right click options, but it's not possible to have…

This is the most interesting comment for me personally. Thanks.

Re: Dropbox: The Inside Story Of Tech's Hottest Startup

#40

Post by samstave » Tue, Oct 18, 2011, 4:15 PM UTC

dr_ wrote: post #15

Jobs never changed his interpretation of things. He did in fact feel cloud storage was a feature and not a product, and that's exactly what iCloud is. For Apple it's a feature that will hopefully tie people in to their iOS devices. And with the likelihood that over time they will offer greater amounts of storage for free or a minimum payment, that's not good for Dropbox. I like Dropbox, I use it almost daily. But so…

I love dropbox - and I just recently switched to a paid account.

I have gotten my whole team on it - we have a virtual team of 10 consultants all working from our homes. Dropbox is key to keeping everything between us shared.

We haven't yet gone for the Team account - but we will be doing so shortly. It is expensive - but the simplicity and value it offers it (so far) unmatched.