iCloud Vs. sCloud Storage Service: Is Samsung Prepping For Another Legal Feud With Apple?

Samsung, the Korean electronics giant, will launch iCloud competitor, S-Cloud (or sCloud), at next month's Galaxy S3 announcement in London on May 3, stated a South Korean report that appeared last week.

Although there is no clear report about how many gigabytes of storage S-Cloud would offer, five gigabytes can be a probable amount. 5GB is, however, the same capacity that's offered by another rumored cloud storage provider, Google Drive.

The report has also claimed that Samsung, just like Amazon, will allow unlimited storage of all media purchased through the S-Cloud, its online store.

Samsung, which already provides a cloud service called Kies to transfer content back and forth from a PC to its Galaxy Tab tablet devices, will harden the competition against Apple's iCloud with its new S-cloud service in the coming days. Samsung's decision of not keeping any limitations on the type of content to be uploaded will give the company an edge over the iCloud service.

Moreover, the company will give users access to popular TV shows, movies and music with free and paid content that will be available across a range of Samsung devices.

Earlier rumors indicated a delayed launch of the service due to some troubles in developing a suitable infrastructure for the global market. But according to the latest Maeil Business report, the company, in order to overcome the situation, has partnered with Microsoft to support its global S-Cloud service.

Meanwhile, Korean tech website MK reported that at its core, Samsung's sCloud service will be similar to that of Apple's iCloud, but will have much more to offer.

iCloud Vs. sCloud

The legal feud between Apple and Samsung seems not to die anytime soon. While the Korean company is involved in numerous Patent disputes over design aesthetic and software UI issues with Apple, in courts from Australia to Germany, the company perhaps wants to fuel the enmity more as it is going to unveil cloud service that is originally inspired by iCloud but is coming with a new moniker of sCloud. This service bears no resemblance to Apple's iCloud suite of internet storage services.

Not much information about the sCloud service is available as of now. Let's check out how Samsung's latest cloud storage service will do against Apple's iCloud.

Storage Space

While Apple will provide free storage capacity of 5GB with its iCloud, the Korean publication Maeil Business earlier reported that S-Cloud would give more than 5GB, storage space. But it is not clear if users will have to pay for extended storage.

Apple offers several tiers of storage, priced by the year. You can upgrade to 15GB for $20/year, 25GB for $40/year or 55GB for $100/year. Samsung's price list on the storage service is not revealed yet.

Content Type

Apple's service allows (almost) instant synchronization of data between devices in the company's ecosystem. iCloud features include automatic downloading of pictures taken on an iPhone onto an iPad over the internet, purchases made on one device being sent to other user owned devices without human intervention and the automatic syncing of documents, calendar, notes, mail and tasks between devices.

Samsung's new service, however, will not have the restrictions and limits found on Apple's iCloud service, allowing Samsung users to store any content they wish in the cloud, says Tech Radar.

Upload Files Directly

While Apple's iCloud lacks the ability to upload files directly since it can only store files from apps that support it, S-Cloud will give users full access to upload files directly. A similar service will be provided by Google Drive. It is even expected that S-Cloud can make the service better by offering iCloud's data syncing along with a Dropbox-like cloud storage feature and offering a way for users to access the files at any given time.

It, however, won't be long before we know for sure which service will win. We will keep you posted on all the upcoming news around the May 3 event.