After years of anticipation, Google could finally be set to launch their Dropbox competitor as early as this week
Google Drive is one of those mythical monsters of geekdom, something that's been speculated about and anticipated for years -- a full, Dropbox-style online storage solution from Google. And Reuters says it might just be announced as soon as today.
Consumers will get 5 Gigabytes of storage for free with Google Drive, while various versions with incrementally more storage capacity, topping out at about 100 Gibabytes, will be available for monthly fees, the source said.
No word on pricing yet, but Google Drive sounds like it will be typically Google -- massive and search-centric.
Google Drive will also be entering an increasingly competitive field, squaring off not only against the aforementioned Dropbox, but against established players like Box and Evernote, and major platform rivals like Microsoft's SkyDrive as well. While Apple's iCloud no longer offers iDisk functionality, it does offer a baseline level of service and convenience that's enough that mainstream users don't go looking for true online storage solutions.
Google has one huge advantage, however -- it's massive, services-centric user base. Demand for a Google-powered online repository has been so high all sorts of McGyver-like solutions have been shoehorned into Gmail and Google Docs just to make it sort-of-work.
If every Gmail and Google accounts users simply "gets" Google Drive, that's one heck of a jumpstart for Google, and something casual users might just turn to.
For power users, displacing Dropbox or Box might be out of the question unless it does the same things so much better it creates a compelling reason to switch. Given how much 3rd party support Dropbox already enjoys, especially in iOS, that could be tough.
Getting used in addition to Dropbox or Box, the way iCloud has, however, would probably be enough for Google Drive at this point.
We should find out shortly.
Source: Reuters via Android Central
