As to 1: it is in many ways insecure (though bound to be hacked might be a bit much.) While dropbox isn't technically a cloud based backup, it can be used that way and there was a period where a glitch left it totally exposed for about four hours ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dropbox_(service)#Reception ). I actually love cloud based backup, but I encrypt my files before I send them and I am dealing with just my own personal data. A company with data they must legally protect would need to be wary.

As to 3: Personally, I love gmail. But from a corporate perspective, you can still exert more control over exchange. This can be significant, especially for highly regulated businesses that need to worry about frequent e-discovery and may perhaps wish to take steps to limit what is sent.

There's a nugget of truth in their concerns which makes them harder to dismiss. Equally, can you say that local storage is more secure, tapes in a "fire-proof" safe, etc? I have reservations about the cloud (Amazon's outage was a wake-up moment for me) but nothing's perfect.

As for Google Mail vs Exchange, my personal opinion is that Gmail is superior in evey way. If you need discovery, you can always shove email through your own gateway (running Postfix) and set it to store all emails it sends and receives. You could also use Postini which I think gives extra facilities like discovery. Might be a bit hacky for some organisations I suppose but I've never found Exchange that elegant or easy to manage.

If only they knew that Dropbox is cloud storage. It's Amazon S3 via python, the rsync library and a familar icon.

I never said they had logic on their side ;) I suppose basically I'm saying you need to make it super-braindead-simple or it won't work. Dropbox and the iPad both do that (I mean it in a good way). I personally don't like the iPad I have at work but non-techies really love them. Small children, older people, no problem. They've discovered Dropbox more-or-less by themselves.

I have wondered how people discover Dropbox. It seems to have penetration into the realm of non-techies, but I am not sure. Is this true, in your opinion?

The iPad I completely understand the appeal. It does not look like a computer. It looks like an Etch-a-Sketch. It's basically a handheld game.

I would love to read more about what your users want. It is interesting and educational.

I work in education so it's a mixed bag. Children like computers for youtube, facebook, etc. They have no inhibitions about technology and don't think it's OK to be clueless. The staff I work with divide into those who use computers all day, every day, and those who only do it occasionally and reluctantly. They tend to take up undue amounts of my time asking for support with trivial things, and I have on occasion been shouted at, whined at by email, screamed at from a distance of a couple of feet, and emotionally blackmailed by a teacher who would break down into tears if I didn't fix her problems immediately. But all the people who do stuff like that (i.e. show extreme discomfort with technology and take it out in inappropriate ways) just love iPads and iPhones. It takes all the crap out of the situation, and it (perhaps most importantly) takes me out of it - I think they feel less dependent when they can install their own apps, etc. The things I dislike about the iPad are what they like most.

I think they discover Dropbox via the iPad rather than via the PC. I don't tell them about it because it can be a bit confusing explaining how it works. But there is no confusion if they find out (for themselves) that it syncs their iPad to their PC and vice versa. Solves a very immediate problem in a hassle-free way.

I'm sure there are plenty of problems waiting to be solved in eduation. For example, multiple logins - to Moodle, Google Docs/Gmail, various other websites. Would love to see an app which sits in the tray and aggregates all these logins so a student can click to say "log me into everything" without ever typing a password except to get into Windows in the first place. (There's not much of a security issue with keeping all these logins in a central database since it's not that sort of login; just a way to play educational games or whatever.) Other things would include ways to get iPads out of the classroom. For example, some of our staff use them to film/photograph students playing sports so they can check their posture. For cricket, for example, it can be very difficult to prove to someone that their arm is bent at the point of delivery (which is a "no ball"). The iPad removes all and any doubt by showing the bowler a movie of his "action". Also, field science, etc - counting how many bugs are in a square meter of grassy ground, using image recognition to look up insects in a DB and say "That's a wood wasp" with a link to Wikipedia, etc.

You did ask ;) I'm sure you could find hundreds of things to do if you're looking for a project.