the free tier is killing them. the strategy to get more free tier base to lead to more paying requires getting deeper with vc. the photos apps are a distraction

the free tier is killing them. the strategy to get more free tier base to lead to more paying requires getting deeper with vc. the photos apps are a distraction and as other posts say smell of desparation. the future of storage is one monolithic platform that stores everything, including apps you havent yet purchased, and costs something. all your device will be imaged here making the hardware disposable. because their culture and their competition strategy are so tied to free, it is unlikely they will pivot away from this. they are now only an acquisition target for a company that can build a for pay product on dropbox. yet they seem to be long haulers so they will lumber on until something comes along to put them out of their misery. the product they achieved really works, just the business model didnt. the only way out i see is for them to build another smartphone os and a device and market the hell out of it so their "db cloud storage" and "db app store" become indispensible rather than one of many free commodities.