Apple’s free iCloud storage for education is getting a boost from 5GB up to 200GB. The extra storage makes sense considering students need a way to store their assignments and other files, and was announced at the “Let’s take a field trip” media event on Tuesday.
The extra storage is part of Apple’s managed Apple ID program for schools. That’s help make Apple’s educational services more enticing to teachers, especially now that the lowest priced iPad includes Apple Pencil support.
Unfortunately, the extra iCloud storage is only available to students and teachers; the general public is still limited to 5GB of free storage and will have to pay US$2.99 a month for their own 200GB.
Apple also announced improved tools for educational Apple ID management and curriculum creation. The media event is still underway, so be sure to check in with The Mac Observer for our ongoing coverage.
Apple is a painfully cheap company. 5GB for their craptacular iCloud is an insult. 200GB is cheap amount for anyone, and to limit it only to edu registered students is even cheaper. Considering how much they depend on their ecosystem to stick users, they are incredible penny wise and pound foolish with the glue that binds to that ecosystem.
Yeah 200GB…aw rats Education only. during the live feed on CultofMac they thought it was everyone for a while. I was really happy, and them bummed.
I would really like to see Apple bump their tiers up. Free to 50GB. $0.99 to 200GB. $2.99 to 500GB. and then add a 1TB tier at something like $5:99/mo. I now have the 50GB plan which is tight. I’ve thought about moving up. Things like pictures won’t fit on 50GB. But they wouldn’t fit on 200GB either. Unfortunately, I can’t justify $9.99/mo (More actually in Canada) when all I need is inn the range of 500GB. So right now I use iCloud for moving files, and the occasional manual photo sharing.
Maybe this is a precursor to them rejiggering the iCloud tiers at WWDC. Fingers Crossed.