> I'd probably bet on Google putting Dropbox out of business with competition, then getting rid of Drive because it's no longer a growth area.

That's not too unlikely, if by "Drive" you mean the desktop sync application, which pretty clearly has always been pretty tangential to the strategic purpose of Drive, which is first and foremost a cloud storage platform for web apps (Google first-party apps, institutional customer second-party apps, and ISV third-party apps).

That's exactly what I think - I even said so earlier - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7394140

Either way, it would be a shame if Google sank Dropbox and I would resent it. Dropbox is a GREAT service for free, then charges if you like more space. They offer the best use cases around for developers who do a lot of cross device work. You can keep all your information on all testing environments, and even share folders with others (or other accounts) and not really face limitations (i.e. no linux support). And with Google already getting strict about storage on Android, you can only suspect a Chess move to gain control with a dollar 99 on the hook.

This. The very obvious thing in the $10 terabyte offer is, Google wants Dropbox and all data hosters out of business.

So I trust that Dropbox _will_ be out of business very soon.

Why? Just because Google are going cheap? I'm personally not interested because it's Google. This may surprise many of you, but there are quite a lot of people who simply don trust Google.

> there are quite a lot of people who simply don trust Google.

while I agree with you in principle, there's also quite a lot more people who simply are happy (relieved, even) that they can make the computer help them perform the task they want to accomplish. I'm not even saying that Dropbox or Google is better at this, just that I see people use every day just what's right in front of them and they know they can make work. and because of that they don't seem to have the luxury (even if they have the foresight) of considering what will stick around for longest (or perhaps what's idealistically "right" to choose).

again, I'm not defending this situation. but it does seem (to me) that the majority of people are motivated by this, and cannot afford or consider decisions like whether or not to "simply not trust Google".

I'm not convinced this is a war that will be won on price alone. Nor will it be won on commodity features (i.e. sync).

Google's advantage is that they can slowly eat away at Dropbox's market share by integrating Google Drive with and marketing it through their other products.

Dropbox's advantage is their existing customer base.

In time I think Google's got the upper hand on this one.

oof, worst of both worlds

How very Kafka.

If it was Kafka, at some point Google would transform into a giant locust, be accused of unknown crime, and sentenced to a prison colony in America.