HTC preloads Dropbox on all new phones to trump iCloud
updated 04:20 pm EDT, Mon October 24, 2011
HTC goes beyond Rhyme with Dropbox plans
HTC on Monday expanded its free 5GB Dropbox plan to come with "all" its Android phones. The Facebook update revealed that all its future Android phones will come preloaded with the Dropbox app and qualify for the 5GB free plan. It had previously focused on the Rhyme and hadn't said it would preload the app.
HTC hasn't said when the first phones ship with the update. Before, it required at least the Sense 3.5 interface, which few of its phones currently have.
The move is a direct, if partial, foil to Apple's iCloud. Dropbox will give HTC's phones like the Sensation XL direct document syncing with full control, which Apple lacks, but also doesn't cover the whole device. iCloud can backup core phone settings and is meant to potentially recover the whole phone.
HTC may have reduced some of its own advantages, as it unveiled on the same day that it plans to close its Listen music store. Its Android users now won't have an option of re-downloading music from the store where iTunes users always have access and, through iTunes Match, to remotely get at any song they own. iCloud is further retroactive and will wirk with devices as old as the iPhone 3GS where HTC hasn't said anything of retroactive support.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Feb 2011
Flailing...
to find something to hang on to. That's HTC's business model.
Preloading a free app like Dropbox? Really? This is going to get people to buy their devices? You'd think they'd want to put more energy into their devices, so they have a little staying power. If you buy this HTC phone, you know it will be outdated in 3-4 months with the next model, and not supported 3-6 months after that. That is why people are churning from your phones, HTC. Not because you don't have iCloud.
I don't think they understand what iCloud does. And I also don't think they realize that plenty of Mac/iDevice users are also Dropbox users. I guess if I were an HTC phone user I'd say "gee, thanks" for loading a free app and saving me 45 seconds of finding and downloading it myself, but that's about it.