Apple now has 190 million people on iCloud, a service that includes cloud backup services for contacts, apps and other content. iCloud has experienced a pretty massive growth this quarter as it’s up from 150 million users in Q3 and 125 million in Q2. Apple released this info at their Q4 earnings call, which took place today.
One reason that Apple has experienced such a jump in iCloud users this quarter is the release of OS X Mountain Lion. Mountain Lion is the first iteration of OS X to feature deep iCloud integration so users can easily sync content between their Macs and iOS devices. Apple also made iCloud more open to developers. For example, Tweetbot uses iCloud to sync Twitter feeds throughout all versions of their app, whether it be for Mac, iPhone or iPad. All of these factors give users another reason to sign up for the free service.
If you’re unaware, iCloud’s basic plan is free and includes 5GB of cloud storage, which is shared between all Macs and iOS devices on your iCloud account. If more storage is needed, you can opt to upgrade your account for an additional 10GB, 20GB or 50GB of storage at $20, $40 of $100 per year, respectively.
Apple has been trying to push iCloud to their customers as it’s supposed to make them more likely to purchase a Mac or even another iOS device as the service is used to keep all devices in sync. However, it looks as if iCloud has failed to do this as the software was released somewhat “half baked” with iOS 5 and OS X Lion. While I personally think iCloud was much improved with the latest iteration of OS X and iOS, some users may have lost faith in the service the first time around.
