In a bid to remain competitive amongst tech giants Google and Apple Amazon has recently announced its ‘unlimited’ music storage offering.
However many who have indulged have found the compatibility limited. Messages appear to the tune of ‘this format is not supported’ when certain files are uploaded.
There always appears to be a catch when someone is advertising an ‘unlimited service.’ A parallel in the physical world can be drawn with the Autobahn in Germany where speed is actually restricted via a vehicle top. Providing unlimited amounts of storage is simply not commercially viable and it is difficult to see at the moment how it can be.
Mozy who have been offering consumer backup since 2006 ended their unlimited backup offering back in February. Their original idea was that the ‘power users’ would be balanced out by those that only used up a minimal amount of space. This was an ambitious business model for $4.99/Month. Even with approximately 10% of Mozy users identified as ‘power users’ this was still never going to be commercially viable.
Competitiveness within the techy world has often pushed the boundaries to where the word ‘unlimited’ has been banded around. In the U.S. Virgin media have been forced to put a throttle on their unlimited mobile usage plan. The same also happened earlier this year with the provider Verizon.
The dream of unlimited online storage is still yet to be reached and users must be aware when opting for such services.
