There is a genuine interest in using personal clouds
(i.e. digital lockers), as long as they are secure, private and support the
devices that people own, according to a survey by Funambol.
The results indicated that 75 percent of users plan to
use the personal cloud to store rich media and digital data, and that 67
percent of users would be willing to pay to use such services, with $5 per
month being the most popular price point.
The new research report, “Personal Cloud Survey:
Hype vs. Reality,” includes responses from 232 people in 49 countries.
The global survey examined people’s views and attitudes
towards digital lockers such as Apple iCloud. It also included a wide range of
questions about current and planned use of personal clouds.
Overall, the research found that there is great potential
for high growth of the personal cloud market; 75 percent plan to use a personal
cloud or digital locker in the future, 24 percent said maybe and 2 percent said
no.
88 percent of the participants plan to store contacts in
the cloud, 85 percent said files, 80 percent said calendar, 69 percent said
photos. 81 percent plan to store between 25 percent and 75 percent of their
data in the cloud, 12 percent plan to store all of it.
72 percent said they would use it for both business and
personal use, 26 percent said only for personal use. 67 percent said they would
be willing to pay a monthly fee, with $5 being the most likely amount.
30 percent of the participants said they would buy
commercial content for their personal cloud, 51 percent said they might. 51
percent said that managing multiple personal clouds could become a big issue in
the future. Security, privacy and broad device support are the most desired
attributes
“The survey results indicate that there is a large
untapped market for digital locker services, which complements Forrester
Research’s recent estimate that the personal cloud market would reach $12B in
the U.S. by 2016,” said Hal Steger, VP of Marketing, Funambol.
This also shows that the market, driven by several
trends, including the rapid proliferation of mobile devices, and new industry
offerings, such as Apple iCloud and Funambol MediaHub, is not just hype.
“As the leading provider of white-label personal
cloud solutions for companies in the mobile industry, we wanted to validate the
needs of personal cloud users. The survey results have been eye opening by
providing substantial detail about user expectations. We are pleased to share
the survey findings to help advance the adoption of personal clouds,” said
Amit Chawla, CEO, Funambol.
By Telecomlead.com Team
editor@telecomlead.com
