iCloud was hailed by Tim Cook back in 2012 as “not just a product. It’s a strategy for the next decade.” Yet these days, iCloud is something of a mess: Not only has it not gained significant features since launch, but a slate of very public hacks have made it a rare black mark on Apple’s security record.
What the heck happened? According to a new report, iCloud isn’t living up to its potential because, organizationally, it’s an orphan within Apple.
Claiming that she has spoken to more than a dozen current and former Apple employees, Jessica Levin of The Information says iCloud is being held up by a number of organizational issues.
Consider, for example, the iCloud photo project, code-named Hyperion, which stems from a directive of Steve Jobs to realize seamless photo syncing. iCloud Photo Library is a step toward what Jobs envisioned, and yet three years later, it’s still in beta, having missed the iOS 8 release.
What gives? How can a mission given by Jobs before his death still not be realized? Levin’s sources say the problem is Apple’s own internal structure: There’s no project manager overseeing iCloud Photo Library, and the company doesn’t even have a team working on iCloud’s core infrastructure.
Why? Because Apple thinks in terms of products, and infrastructure isn’t seen as a product within the company.
Obviously, this is an attitude Apple is going to have to address. As we expect more and more of Apple’s products and services to work together, invisible infrastructure will be the product that holds it all together. Hopefully, Apple will be able to address these philosophical issues sooner rather than later.
Source: The Information
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
40 responses to “Why iCloud is Apple’s worst product”
I couldn’t agree more. In my office, I’m the de facto Apple go-to guy, and I have to explain to everyone that that iCloud is – well, I’m not really sure what it is, how photos interact with storage quota, etc. And just when I think I’ve figured it out, I realize I havent. It’s a true mess, and I’m very surprised its shortcomings haven’t received more attention.
I’m trying to figure out what problems there are. The hacking passwords wasn’t Apple’s fault, it was the fault of famous celebrities not choosing hard to hack passwords. Celebrities are always targets that people want to attack or expose naked photos. Having a password (example: 12345) is not a safe way to protect their account. If they are technologically challenged and don’t know how to figure out a harder to hack password, then that’s not Apple’s fault, that’s THEIR fault. Or the simple fact that it’s kind of stupid to take naked photos of oneself and think that they’ll never get released to the public.
Now, I think Apple, and everyone else, should have better security questions and that people need to not publicize what those answers are. When someone needs to reset their password, Apple notifies the user’s email account/secondary email account so the user is notified of a password reset.
Other than that, I haven’t had any problems other than the occasional temporary outage (which is always going to happen due to the nature of running a cloud service). At least they post a service status on-line so you can find out if they have a specific type of outtage.
Isn’t the iCloud services managed by Eddy Cue? ‘Nuff said.
Apple had 2 big security issues leading up the celebrity “hacking” one was storing unencrypted iPhone backups and not clearing the old backups that should have been deleted. They also had a vulnerability in iCloud that allowed hackers to brute force passwords.
In the end though it was the users fault for weak passwords and security questions that allowed the dead, 2 factor authentication would have stopped that but not many people know about it or even understand it.
Apple can only encourage users to use their secure services, not force them. It’s noones fault other than the user, for using weak passwords and their public email addresss as their ID’s. The hackers, from Russia, were using tools only permitted to be used by law enforcement agencies, so it was hardly an accident or a fluke. This hacking was done over a few years, which indicates it’s still taken them months to break into people’s accounts. Every cloud service on the planet has been attacked at some point, even Google.
You’re missing a several huge functions of iCloud that are extremely cool and important. FindMyPhone is one of the best utilities know to the device world. And the sycronization between my phone and my mac is getting better and better. The “handoff” between my phone and my mac with phonecalls is a bit cumbersome and slow at the moment, but I’m ready for it to rock. Sure there are problems with any “cloud” connected technology, but iCloud is what enables the mac to sync up across all of your Apple devices. Not on an Apple device, it might be easy to point the finger. These days I’m a little annoyed when people text me with a non-Apple, non-iCloud phone, I actually have to pick up my phone to answer it. http://uber.la
I have been trying on and off for months to escape from the clutches of iPhoto. It took me forever to drill down, via terminal AND the GUI, and get rid of a bunch of crap from an old job. Getting to using my own NAS and Lightroom (another headache, I know) has been a nightmare. I’m exhausted climbing over these walls in these gardens.
I must be the minority because I love iCloud. The service has always worked will for me. With all the new features and has become even more useful for my mom who was limited on space on her device. I do agree they have room to improve but I am not sure what everyone is expecting. Seems to do everything most of the other cloud services do today.
Count me in…. I love iCloud and it works flawlessly for me.
Apple is clearly not committed to iCloud, so how can we take it seriously? The only thing that it’s being used for right now is syncing app data across devices. I actually use OneDrive for backing up photos – when you turn to Microsoft for the solution, you know things are bad.
Apple sees Google as their biggest competitor, but they can’t expect to compete with Google unless they sort out their infrastructure.
This is extremely disturbing given the Apple (and most other company in the area of information management) is committed to a ‘data everywhere/cloud’ approach. If it’s bad now, just wait until things really get loaded up.
Security should have been paramount from the start but, hey, it’s not Apple’s data on the internet…
iCloud? Tough competition from iTunes
iCloud is great. I think it has become too trendy for various Apple Blogs to hate on whatever cloud service Apple provides.
Hmmmmm..
Where to begin…..
I’m not sure where the author gets his facts.. He apparently knows NOBODY who works with iCloud or even Apple..
A. there is quite a large Engineering and Project Management team .. controlling the iCloud infrastructure …They meet daily.. And discuss all sorts of issues.. future and current.
B. I agree ..there are still some points where iCloud (File Management / Drive management )is lacking but again with almost 1 billion users not everybody is gonna be happy. Updates have to be throughly tested and vetted before release.
Ok. Can you tell us a better cloud service that does all what Apple offers, like find my phone, documents, keynote, numbers, photos, messages, reminders, notes, iOS device backups, music match, app syncing etc?
Google pretty much has all that covered.
They don’t have music match but you can upload all your songs and they have a subscription service making something like Music match a little outdated and redundant.
Google has their own productivity suite; docs, spreadsheets, etc. but if you want to use Apple’s products those documents will sync to the cloud with Google Drive.
Stuff like photos, maps, messages, reminders, notes, in my opinion Google does a better job at. Most of the Google apps are cross platform and most of the time work just as well as their android counterparts in spite of Apple’s walled garden approach. Sometimes I think the best part of Apple devices is that you can run Googles apps on it.
Seriously? Pretty much? Please give me a full comparison, service for service, device for device then get back to me. Do they work across ALL devices too? Desktops, laptops, phones tablets AND a TV box? Don’t guess your answers, do some homework first, please.
OK, I did my homework and I found out yes, Google has service for service everything Apple has in most cases feature to feature they are better. They work across all PC’s and Android devices, TV and even cross platform on Apple devices as well.
Time for you to do your homework, can you name anything you can do on Apple that can’t be done on Google or Android?
Um, I think you need to go back and look at what Apple provide behind the scene.. Google don’t have applications that Apple provides with cloud syncing like iPhoto, keynote, numbers, pages etc, as well as handoff, find my friends, music match, photo library sync, photo journaling, iTunes movie sync, iMovie trailers, shall I go on? Next time you attempt to make stupid comments, try and use your brain first. Back to Call of android you go.
Your only embarrassing yourself, Google has it all and does it better in most every regard.
If you peek outside that box Apple put you in you will see there is a whole world out there.
Umm… I’m using both iCloud and Google services. OS X is pretty well integrated with Google service after Maverick, excepts for a few things.
1. iWorks on cloud: Yes I’m now using Google Drive too. Google Drive is far superior for team cooperation comparing to iCloud drive, but the document creating/editing functionality is still no match for a traditional desktop suite. For users who’re working a document alone, iWorks + iCloud drive is still a better choice.
2. Note: Google Keep is good, but it’s rather a great note-taking activities on smart phones, than a noting tool. Google Keep is best to use as home widget on Android phones: you can do quick note/photo/voice memo taking, and Google Keep can put all these things all together in Google Drive. For any purpose other than that, Google Keep is just a not-so-good note managing tool when comparing to Microsoft OneNote or Evernote, and a clumsy note sync tool when comparing to Apple Note. Apple Note does not have so many content rich editing options, but if I’d just want to make a shopping list on the desktop, and check the list on my phone when I’m in the mall, Note is much easier to use.
3. Reminder: I still can’t understand why Google don’t want to give us a decent to-do list tool. They have moved Google Task from Gmail to Calendar, but it’s still lacking critical functions for any computer program who can itself a to-do list. I mean, c’mon Google, just look at Remember the Milk, how hard would that be to attach priority, location, and time reminder to a to-do list ?
4. FaceTime and Message: I’ve tried Google Hangout app to keep in touch with my college when I’m out for business. My comment ? Slow, buggy, poor quality, bad integration, always have trouble with text. Finally we have reached the agreement with my college: grab an iPhone from another guy and use FaceTime instead.
If you peek outside that box Google put you in, you will see there is a even a larger world out there.
I am platform agnostic so I am fortunate to be box-less.
I have an Android phone and use an Apple tablet and laptop. I’m like you, I don’t get stuck on brand loyalty and will use what works.. I use Evernote for notes organization and Keep for quick notes and lists. I mostly use Apple office suite for creation and Google for collaboration and sync my files and backup with Dropbox.
I never said Google was perfect I was just stating that cloud services feature to feature Apple has nothing over Google, which shouldn’t be surprising because Google’s core business is in the cloud and they have been doing it for much longer.
So can we both please stop using words like “peek outside that box *someone* put you in” or “embarrassing yourself” ? It helps nothing but flaming.
I only wish every post could be as constructive and informative. If you follow the thread from the beginning I tried my best to stay on point. Everyone has a right to their own opinion but not their own facts and sometimes a little “flame” is effective at putting the topic back on track when someone attempts to derail it.
I think you’ve embarrassed yourself completely. How can google be better at services they don’t even offer? A sad person you are, you don’t even know what services Apple provide and just go off half cocked. List the cloud services in comparison to Apple, app for app, service for service, please. You can’t because they simply don’t exist. Keychain anyone?
Yes, Google remembers passwords across platforms and devices just like iCloud Keychain does.
Google offers every cloud service that Apple has and even some it doesn’t, like Google Cloud Print and Google Voice and Wifi Calling, the list goes on..
I don’t get why you think Apple has some sort of edge over Google that LIVES in the cloud, it is a cloud based services company!
Your Apple bias is clouding your common sense. Do a little homework, open your mind to the possibility that you are wrong and you won’t embarrass yourself.
Name another cloud service Apple has that you think Google doesn’t offer and I’ll school you on that.
Still here embarrassing yourself. iMovie trailers. Discuss. I can do this all day if you like. Moron.
You keep digging yourself deeper.
You do realize YouTube is a Google service? Have you even used YouTube? it serves up quite a bit more than just movie trailers.
Next..
I actually know of 1 Apple cloud service that Google doesn’t provide, I wonder how long it will take you to figure it out, but I warn you in advance it’s not going to help your original case.
If feel sorry for you, I really do. You clearly do not understand the services mentioned. Instead of diverting off into tangents, use your precious Google search and find out first. So far you’ve just mentioned some services Google provide, but you still haven’t given a service for service comparison. If you want to claim something is better than something else, you’d better have some concrete evidence to back up such claims. Look up iMovie Theater on Apple TV, then look in the mirror, then you’ll see who’s embarrassing who.
Clearly you have issues. I’ve read through some of your past posts on disqus and you frequently resort to insults when people disagree with your opinions. That is what is sad.
I’ve already wasted enough time beating you up, had I known you were mentally unstable from the beginning I wouldn’t have even responded since its clear you are not a rational person. I think its time you looked into the mirror and see what everyone else sees, a foolish person.
You’re clealry a fandroid (agnostic my ass), so I see no point even arguing with your unsupported claims. If you have a look back, you commented on my thread, not the other way around, so I don’t have to prove anything, as I’ve continually asked of you. I have use Apple products, OS, and services for 29 years, so excuse me for actually enjoying something I trust and know so well. I wasn’t aware it was a crime, and last time I looked, this IS an Apple forum is it not? If you wish to put your trust in an advertising company, good luck to you. I hope you enjoy being tracked. I don’t, so don’t try and come here to browbeat others to think like you. I certainly don’t vist forums of other product providers and troll comments for sport. I have a life. Try and find one, you might be happier that way. Have a happy life, but respect that others are happy with their choices too, ok.
I think that the people attacking M. Smith ‘s arguments are
being insulting. Elementary informal logic teaches people
not to attack the person, but the argument. Guys,some of
you are behaving like trolls, and I actually prefer to see
reasoned argument. But I do not understand why anyone
wants to argue about this,if it is simply a matter of preference.
What are you gaining?
I am looking at the comments page to see if there are
interesting and informative comments. The thread started
off well…but then it degenerated. Now reading this
thread is becoming less informative.
Michael Smith is trying to present informative comments.
Some others are not even trying– and they are replacing
reasoned commentary with insults.
Does Apple have an iInsult app?
No. He tried to imply Google services were superior to Apples. How can that be so when google don’t even offer services that Apple do? My point was Apple services go far deeper than most people are aware of. If fandroids want to come here spruking uninformed garbage, they’d better have some evidence to back up their hyperbole, don’t you think? Forgive me for actually asking for evidentiary proof of his claims, but his refusals showed him out to be what he is. A moron.
It’s Jessica Lessin, not Levin.
This iCloud sucks meme is complete bullcrap. iCloud works so well and so unobtrusively that people take what it does completely for granted. No other company offers a suite of cloud services that are as complete and seamless as iCloud. iCloud is not perfect, but it is better than everything else out there.
iCloud only works well when your Apple devices are all on the same WiFi network and all of your devices/apps are on Sync. If your work requires you to use a lot of Data, most people throttle iCould back to save on their data requirements. In Europe, data levels are much lower than they are in the US. In the US, cellular companies will allow 5 to 10 gig’s per month, in Europe, 100 to 200 meg is more normal. I never used to use iCloud at all, it was cumbersome and difficult to set up on all your devices, especially if you have more than one iCloud account, e.g. mac.com, me.com, iCloud.com. The more devices you have, the more issues you’ll have with iCloud. Many US IOS users have high iCloud memory requirements, due to pictures and iTunes Match. I never sync my music (I have 5400 songs, which are songs that i have outside of iTunes) which keeps my monthly memory allotment in iCloud well below the 5 gigabit threshold.
I’m really not understanding of Apple’s marketing move with iCloud. The more a person places in the cloud, the less secure I feel. And, what if the cloud gets broke? If your App’s are all in the cloud, like Google Apps, how will you be able to function?
I’m using a 500M monthly plan and I keep anything excepts for iTunes Match in sync with iCloud over mobile networks. From the monthly usage statics so far, web browsing eats up most of the networking usage, social media activities (Twitter, Line, Facebook) is the second. iCloud syncing only contribute a few percentage among the total.
I totally agree w/u the service sucks, it costs so damn too much and it’s not so functional as Apple think.
Mobile-me was clunky but, eventually, I got it to do what I wanted. I have yet to get iCloud to fit into my life. I’ve had to use dropbox to fill the space that iDisk left, and iPhoto syncing is a disaster – I can never find the image I want. I just want to organise my files and documents the way I want them. I don’t want my files organised by the software I’v used (e.g. numbers, pages etc.) I agree with xared regarding iTunes too. Why do my movies I want to watch on my iPhone automatically go into a sub-folder within music? They’re movie files not music files! And any movie I’ve ripped from a DVD gets stuck in “Home Movies” just because I didn’t buy it from Apple. I’m seriously considering looking at a Samsung/Google combo next time.
And you have only scratched the surface of the annoyances with Apple’s products. I recently made the switch to Google/Android and once you see how things should be done you won’t believe you ever supported Apple.
Apple was once a great company but they have turned into a Microsoft, all marketshare with no substance.
I don’t even think they host it. It seems to be outsourced. Its slow and terrible.