Before iCloud, Apple tried to buy Dropbox for nine digits
Victoria Barret of Forbes profiles Dropbox today and reveals how co-founder Drew Houston was made an offer by Steve Jobs and Apple that it turns out he could refuse.
In December 2009 Jobs beckoned Houston (pronounced like the New York City street, not the Texas city) and his partner, Arash Ferdowsi, for a meeting at his Cupertino office. “I mean, Steve friggin’ Jobs,” remembers Houston, now 28. “How do you even prepare for that?” When Houston whipped out his laptop for a demo, Jobs, in his signature jeans and black turtleneck, coolly waved him away: “I know what you do.”
Houston and Dropbox didn't want a buyout, even a nine digit one. They wanted to build a company. Jobs told them they were a "feature, not a product" and at WWDC 2011 revealed iCloud.
The entire article is fascinating. Give it a read.
Source: Forbes
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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It IS a feature. And every platform (with product) will build their own flavor. Apple will be around long after Dropbox is forgotten.
They should have sold, but that ship has sailed.
Semi-related, I also think Apple should have/should still, buy Twitter.
Yup it is a feature. Though some people want to build a company around a feature and only expect the company to be there for a few years. Dropbox is still useful and still does things iCloud can't. However there will come a time when Dropbox is no longer useful.
I currently use dropbox as an offsite backup for important personal documents, and as a means of transferring files between devices. I know people who use higher level functions to integrate with apps to store synchronized data in Dropbox.
Now if only dropbox would solve their security concerns and up their storage amounts on their tiers, or I might be looking at sugarsync.
I think that the hole iMessage thing will grow into a form of Twitter amongst the ios allumni.
Your a feature not a product, lololol.
yeah, they should have sold but maintained a level of independence at Apple. only thing they have over other platforms is a free desktop sync client and lots of mobile clients
They also have that whole full data storage encryption on their servers going for them. Most other services only offer that to Enterprise clients but Dropbox offers it to both Free and Consumer accounts.
The only card Dropbox will be able to play, is the one that states that they're platform agnostic.
Dropbox is 100% better than the solution Apple built, that's why Jobs tried to buy it.
iCloud is the worst implementation of a online backup/sync solution that I have ever used, and that includes solutions from Google, Microsoft and Nokia.
For anyone who takes the time to read the whole article, this Apple tidbit is just a footnote. Good luck to Mr. Houston and well done on his refusal to sell Dropbox.
That was and is going to be the biggest mistake of their lives. When their product is going to turn into useless pennies.
They should have taken the offer. Icloud will make Dropbox obsolete.
One thing is certain: if you own a technology that Apple is willing to pay nine digits for, it will become an Apple feature one way or another.
Way 1: Apple acquires your company (e.g. Siri.)
Way 2: Apple implements the feature on their own (e.g. iCloud.)
Up to you. Way 1 means money and security. Way 2 means that Apple could crush you. Flip a coin.
Humm...and I wonder why did everybody used to hate Microsoft when they did just that?
Hit the nail on the head.
Either you are worth 9 figures to Apple, or you are worthless 6 months later when they rip your idea.
I still do use Dropbox though. Nobody has caught up with them in terms of interface or ease of use. The closest thing is Microsoft Live Mesh, but thats a bit of a headache TBH. Haven't used it in years.