Apple released the beta version of iCloud last night for developers and with it unveiled the pricing for additional iCloud storage. iCloud will come with 5 GB of storage for free, which we knew; however, you know and we know and Cupertino knows that 5 GB is not going to cut it for everyone. Apple had been hinting that additional storage space would be available -- for a price. Now we know what those prices are, and how they compare.

iCloud will store and back up your music, photos, apps, calenders, documents and more. Apple is fronting you 5 GB on the house. If When you need more storage space, here is what you will pay:

- 10 GB for $20 a year (15 GB total)
- 20 GB for $40 a year (25 GB total)
- 50 GB for $100 a year (55 GB total)

These new storage upgrade options effectively double what you were paying for MobileMe, which was $99 a year for 20 GB of storage. Which is great, but MobileMe was never really priced that aggressively anyway, especially when compared against competitors like Dropbox and SugarSync. 

So how will iCloud match up?

Glad you asked, and glad Federico Viticci at MacStories created this cool chart to compare:

So, prices for iCloud are right there, toe-to-toe, with other online storage options. We suspect that you won't have all the same flexibility as Dropbox or SugarSync; Cloud will most likely be limited to content created or managed by Apple apps (photos from iPhoto, music from iTunes, text documents from Pages, etc.), although this is not totally clear yet. However, with iCloud you will gain automatic backup and wireless push to all of your iDevices, providing instant sync between your Mac, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. Which will be kind of fabulous.

Regardless of which storage platform you end up using, at least now we know that you won't be paying crazy more for staying on the Apple farm.

Via MacStories

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