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Yesterday, Apple revealed how much the iCloud--its shiny new product that will allow you to share music, e-books, and movies between multiple computers and mobile devices--will actually cost you. With the release of the Beta site for developers, Apple, on its site, also let potential users in on its pricing scheme. After 5GB of free storage, the next 10 GB cost $20 a year, the next 20 gigs will run $40 a year, and the next 50 (for you media freaks) will cost you $100 a year. Sure those numbers sound steep, but it actually isn't as bad as it might seem.
Unlike Google, which charges nothing for storage and instead relies on ads, Apple is trying to pay-for-space strategy, explains PCWorld's Daniel Ioenscu. "Apple will charge users who require more than 5GB of free iCloud storage (documents, backups, contacts, calendars) and won't display ads."
5 GB isn't very much. It's about an iPod Nano's worth of stuff--maybe about five movies. But, unless you're a media entity, or a hoarder, you probably won't have to pay Apple anything to use the cloud, believes Gadgetwise's Nick Bilton.
Apple noted on its Web site that applications, books and music, will not count against the 5 gigabytes of free storage. Mail, iWorks documents, photos and account settings will count towards the iCloud storage. A user could expect to store more than 1,000 photos for free.
Photo Stream images also don't count against your storage limit, adds 9to5Mac's Mark Gurman.