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How Dropbox Will Die

forbes.com

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Re: How Dropbox Will Die

#21

Post by kevinalexbrown »

antihero wrote: post #19
kevinalexbrown wrote: post #13

Dropbox executed well. But where can Dropbox expand to? Unless dropbox can get better and better, eventually the competition will catch up. Better device and product integration? That will require more and more cooperation from Windows, Apple, and Google.

It already supports Android, OSX, Linux, Windows... I'd quite like it if they had Music syncing option, mind.

Music syncing, etc. was what I was referring to. I don't think they'll flame out right away, but in 5 years, what will they have that doesn't ship with your OS?

Re: How Dropbox Will Die

#22

Post by brianobush »

0x12 wrote: post #2

I wrote something about this in another thread. I don't think dropbox will die, and here is why: Dropbox is only a 'feature' if you already have everything else, an operating system, and an installed base of a large number of devices. But dropbox the product, not dropbox the feature is what exists today. Seamless filesharing at an affordable pricepoint (including a free tier) across all devices and across all major o…

I agree with most of what you write save the fact that Dropbox is not a feature. I use dropbox constantly to the point it is invisible to my work. My files move around without me worrying about it. From a consumer point of view (ie, non-tech) how your files synchronize doesn't matter. The fact that the files are there when you need them is what matters. In the consumer eye, Dropbox would be a feature of all their devices.

Re: How Dropbox Will Die

#25

Post by [deleted] »

SecretofMana wrote: post #3

"(I should probably do a post explaining why Evernote is an application and Dropbox only a feature.)" Yes, this would be great. A lot of this article seems to be based on the author's very loose and short definition of a feature, so I didn't really get a lot out of it. A comparison would help me better understand the point trying to be made here.

[deleted]

Re: How Dropbox Will Die

#26

Post by corin_ »

> A feature is something that really belongs or can easily be built into something that already exists.

Such a loose definition that really can be bent to fit whatever point you want to make.

Forbes is a feature not a product, Apple could provide the content themselves and people would just get it on their iPhone, who needs a seperate company creating it?

Gmail is a feature not a product, it belongs in your phone's operating system or in a product such as MS Office.

Realistically feature vs. product is subjective, it is entirely down to whether users want to use a seperate service on an integrated one.

To move away from the web startup world, how about satnav systems as an example. We all know they can be built into cars, and that's been happening for a while, and for those cars that have them, it is certainly a feature of the car. That hasn't killed the companies selling dedicated systems, such as TomTom.

Or for computer hardware, speakers are really just a feature of your computer, not a seperate product, yet people still buy speakers that aren't a part of their PC, just connected to them.

Both these examples, it is possible to get them as features rather than products, but the demand for standalone products has kept them in existance.

Re: How Dropbox Will Die

#27

Post by aneth »

bigiain wrote: post #8

I've often thought they need a lower tier than the $100/year option. I get a remarkable amount of value from Dropbox, but somehow knowing I'm only using < 20% of the free tier makes it psychologically difficult to justify paying them $100/yr. If there were an option to pay $20 or $30 or so for what I'm getting for free, I'd probably just do it. $100 is a little too far outside the no-brainer price range for me though…

Why would you pay for what they happily offer for free?

Re: How Dropbox Will Die

#28

Post by 0x12 »

brianobush wrote: post #22
0x12 wrote: post #2

I wrote something about this in another thread. I don't think dropbox will die, and here is why: Dropbox is only a 'feature' if you already have everything else, an operating system, and an installed base of a large number of devices. But dropbox the product, not dropbox the feature is what exists today. Seamless filesharing at an affordable pricepoint (including a free tier) across all devices and across all major o…

I agree with most of what you write save the fact that Dropbox is not a feature. I use dropbox constantly to the point it is invisible to my work. My files move around without me worrying about it. From a consumer point of view (ie, non-tech) how your files synchronize doesn't matter. The fact that the files are there when you need them is what matters. In the consumer eye, Dropbox would be a feature of all their dev…

As long as enough people are willing to pay for the 'feature' I'm sure that the dropbox founders don't care too much what people call it :)

Re: How Dropbox Will Die

#29

Post by wisty »

Who cares if it's a feature, not a product? The question is - is it a vertical or horizontal feature? You can't sell cut-and-paste, because there's no advantage in having the same cut and paste on every device (no horizontal advantage), and you'll lose out to the manufactures ability to bake deeply integrated cut-and-paste into the OS (big advantage for the vertical implementations). For file sync, there's not a huge need for vertical integration (OK, Erik Sink's written about how different platforms can be a PITA - http://www.ericsink.com/entries/quirky.html, but it's still possible if you have the resources and smarts); and you have a huge advantage over horizontal players, because people want their data safe on different devices.

There's a little company called Microsoft, which sold OSes. The OS is just a feature of computers. They had the chops to smooth over the vertical issues (drivers, etc), and got boosted by the horizontal advantages (your programs work on any computer with Windows). So the OS became a product, not a feature, because it carved out a large horizontal niche, blowing away the vertically integrated "features".

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