If you’re used to storing your photos and videos for free in Google’s cloud, this week brought bad news: the days of unlimited storage are numbered.
Starting in June 2021, you’ll still get 15 gigabytes of free storage, but anything above that and you’ll have to pay. So with the exciting days of free data storage coming to an end, what is the most cost-effective way to store images or any file on your smartphone? Should you keep uploading your snapshots to the cloud or store them on a computer? Should you pay for a larger hard drive on your device, or perhaps think of an external hard drive?
Let’s start with smartphones. Memory is where companies like Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. really make money. It will cost you an additional $ 100 for every 128GB of memory you add to your iPhone or Galaxy, the latest versions of which are available with up to 512GB. That’s way more than the cost for any manufacturer – a similarly sized NAND flash memory chip costs just $ 1.66 at recent prices. In fact, it’s a very healthy gross profit margin.
Meanwhile, Google only offers its Pixel phones with 128GB of memory. That was great when the company allowed you to store unlimited data in the cloud for free. But now your options are worth thinking about. How much will the cloud cost you? Major consumer cloud providers like Apple’s iCloud, Google One, Microsoft OneDrive, and Dropbox Inc. are pretty much aligned on price these days. For 200GB you can expect to pay $ 2.99 a month, for 2 terabytes it will be $ 9.99.
Americans replace their smartphones, on average, every 33 months, so buying an additional 200GB of storage each month would cost $ 98.97 over the life of the device. That works out significantly cheaper than buying a smartphone with more memory up front, as opting for an iPhone with an additional 256GB of memory would add $ 200 to the price. Of course, the longer you’re willing to keep your phone, the cheaper it will be compared to cloud storage.
How about giving up the extra phone storage and just backing up the phone to your computer? If you’re an Apple fan, backing up an iPhone with a Macbook won’t save you a dime; additional memory options for the company’s laptops cost the same per gigabyte as for the iPhone. In some cases, they are even more expensive.
But you can start saving money with external hard drives and USB sticks. A 256GB SanDisk USB stick, a drive from Western Digital Corp., costs just $ 32.49. On a cost-per-gigabyte basis, that puts others out of the park: Smartphones and laptops cost the equivalent of 78 cents for every additional gigabyte; cloud providers charge 49 cents; And the external hard drive averages just 15 cents (1).
The problem is, external hard drives are a real headache. Typically you need to upload files to your computer and from there to the drive. Then you won’t be able to access them again until you get back to your computer.
However, there are two options that are better. Some smartphone manufacturers, including Samsung, allow you to add additional memory in the form of a MicroSD card. At an average of 19 cents per gigabyte, they are only slightly more expensive than an external drive and much easier to use.
The other option is to keep unlimited free online photo storage – Amazon.com Inc. But there is a risk that the e-commerce giant will follow Google’s lead. It’s the kind of bait and switch tactic that antitrust authorities are beginning to examine more closely, where tech giants seem to make a service free long enough to squeeze out smaller rivals and take their customers away, only to then raise your prices. once the field. Sometimes the cheapest does not necessarily benefit the customer in the long run.
(1) Based on the cost per gigabyte of 256GB smartphone memory compared to 200GB cloud storage and average 256GB external hard drives or USB sticks.
This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Alex Webb is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe’s technology, media and communications industries. He previously covered Apple and other tech companies for Bloomberg News in San Francisco.
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