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Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

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Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#21

Post by makecheck »

overcast wrote: post #5
zyxley wrote: post #2

People stick with Dropbox for a simple reason: they do the syncing thing faster and more painlessly than anyone else out there. If Apple ever gets their act together and makes iCloud actually fast and reliable a syncing service, Dropbox might be in trouble.

What's the actual issue with iCloud? It takes three seconds to turn it on, and select what I want to sync. Done. Backing up, syncing calendars, contacts, and notes to all my devices with zero problem.

I've noticed that iCloud has a really hard time removing things. For instance, I've tried to delete some "keyboard shortcuts" for about a year now and every few weeks it manages to restore every last one to all of my devices. It doesn't seem to matter if I explicitly delete them from all devices.

Every cloud service needs a "delete, damn it, I really mean it" option, otherwise it seems their sync mechanisms are too conservative and resurrect things forever.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#23

Post by riq_ »

overcast wrote: post #17
josteink wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the actual issue with iCloud? I'll admit I haven't tried yet, but I'm going to hazard a guess that if I try to setup icloud on my Linux machines at home or my Android devices, I'm not going to get very far. With Dropbox I get all the way, everywhere, with no hassles. Thus Dropbox has my business.

That's like saying well I'm not going to get very far running a Playstation 4 game on my Super Nintendo. You can't count software that isn't even supported on a system. Yes, DropBox has a client for many systems, but saying DropBox is better because iCloud doesn't even exist on Linux make no sense.

> but saying DropBox is better because iCloud doesn't even exist on Linux make no sense.

makes sense for me. I don't use iCloud because of that. It doesn't have the features that I need. Although "Better" is subjective. Dropbox might not be better for you, but it "makes sense" for some people

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#24

Post by hartator »

overcast wrote: post #17
josteink wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the actual issue with iCloud? I'll admit I haven't tried yet, but I'm going to hazard a guess that if I try to setup icloud on my Linux machines at home or my Android devices, I'm not going to get very far. With Dropbox I get all the way, everywhere, with no hassles. Thus Dropbox has my business.

That's like saying well I'm not going to get very far running a Playstation 4 game on my Super Nintendo. You can't count software that isn't even supported on a system. Yes, DropBox has a client for many systems, but saying DropBox is better because iCloud doesn't even exist on Linux make no sense.

It's actually a good reason to pick DropBox over iCloud if you are running multiple OSes. So, it does make it better in a way.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#25

Post by toomuchtodo »

itsbits wrote: post #19
pyrrhotech wrote: post #16

I'd be shocked if Dropbox is still in business in 5 years. It's kind of sad because it was the first mover and I loved the service when it was the only one, but now there are a million options that are probably just as good. Not to mention they've never made a dime on me personally or anyone I know (and as I understand it that's true for 95% of their user-base). Our company actually banned Dropbox.com because we deci…

Dropbox will be in business by acquisition. How about Microsoft acquiring dropbox? Their onedrive is not as good as dropbox and will surely help in their cause.

Apple. Please Apple. Replace your iCloud abomination with Dropbox when the time comes.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#26

Post by jhasse »

overcast wrote: post #17
josteink wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What's the actual issue with iCloud? I'll admit I haven't tried yet, but I'm going to hazard a guess that if I try to setup icloud on my Linux machines at home or my Android devices, I'm not going to get very far. With Dropbox I get all the way, everywhere, with no hassles. Thus Dropbox has my business.

That's like saying well I'm not going to get very far running a Playstation 4 game on my Super Nintendo. You can't count software that isn't even supported on a system. Yes, DropBox has a client for many systems, but saying DropBox is better because iCloud doesn't even exist on Linux make no sense.

Well it does make sense if he says Dropbox is just as good as iCloud on Mac and even supports other platforms. Thus it's better if you aren't only using Mac.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#27

Post by toomuchtodo »

jl6 wrote: post #14
disantlor wrote: post #9

My dropbox scenario is I have a 2TB HD and 2TB dropbox storage with the 1year packrat service. I record and edit music on the HD and dropbox is always syncing my changes. The next day, when I'm at work, I can pull up the website and listen to the stuff I worked on the previous night. If I go into a studio I connect to dropbox and sync whatever folder(s) that contains the song(s) I'm working on. When I get home the fi…

Have you tried asking to pay for more space? I would be willing to pay for a package somewhere between the 1TB pro account and the very expensive Business account.

Not OP, but I've asked for more space and was told the business account was my only option, so now I've hacked together a Dropbox/S3 hybrid.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#28

Post by InvisibleCities »

Dropbox has the same problem a lot of the moderately successful unicorns have; it's a good product managed by smart people that would be much better off as a right-sized stable lifestyle business a la 37 Signals / Basecamp than as an attempt at a world-beating massive-growth juggernaut like Google or Facebook. Unfortunately for them (and Evernote, and a whole host of others), once you've signed that deal for the huge late-stage VC cash infusion at a fantasy-land valuation, there's no going back.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#29

Post by pfarnsworth »

$5M valuation isn't exactly suffering. The problem is that the failure of Box as a thriving company has put a ceiling on how much Dropbox can make in the public markets.

If Dropbox does need more money, if it can't get profitable with the funding it already has, then it will be in for tough times. If it is forced to go public before it's ready, like Square, then its employees will suffer much like Square's employees have with its stock price.

Re: Dropbox May Not Be LeBron James, but Is Still in the Game

#30

Post by disantlor »

jl6 wrote: post #14
disantlor wrote: post #9

My dropbox scenario is I have a 2TB HD and 2TB dropbox storage with the 1year packrat service. I record and edit music on the HD and dropbox is always syncing my changes. The next day, when I'm at work, I can pull up the website and listen to the stuff I worked on the previous night. If I go into a studio I connect to dropbox and sync whatever folder(s) that contains the song(s) I'm working on. When I get home the fi…

Have you tried asking to pay for more space? I would be willing to pay for a package somewhere between the 1TB pro account and the very expensive Business account.

Yeah as toomuchtodo mentioned there is no option except business and there is a minimum of, I believe, 5 accounts, so at $15/per user/mo thats $900/yr vs the ~$200/yr I'm currently paying. Maybe worth it as each band member could have their own account, but it's a pretty big leap when I really only need 1-2 TB more.
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