????上周一，史蒂夫?喬布斯（Steve Jobs）掀開了iCloud的面紗。許多人為此歡呼雀躍。

????蘋果公司（Apple）終于挺進云領域。其云服務足以與谷歌公司（Google）和亞馬遜公司（Amazon）最近推出的同類服務相抗衡。該服務可以提供音樂、照片、視頻、應用、以及其他文件的存儲，而且通過任一款蘋果設備均能便捷地訪問這些內容。

????另一方面，蘋果的新動作也引發了部分人的疑慮，即iCloud是否會威脅到現有的第三方服務，特別是那些與之特性相近且應用廣泛的基于云的存儲和文件同步服務。

????Dropbox首席執行官兼聯合創始人德魯?休斯頓卻不以為然。他說：“難道兩者有什么沖突嗎？”今年4月，這家公司深受歡迎的文件同步服務剛剛突破了2,500萬用戶的大關。“史蒂夫?喬布斯的iCloud是為蘋果系統開發的，而我們的服務則面向所有人。二者其實完全風馬牛不相及。”

????休斯頓還以自己的母親為例說明問題。她擁有一臺搭載Windows 操作系統的上網本，還有一臺Android設備。對于她這類與蘋果封閉式操作系統絕緣的人來說，iCloud根本不會產生什么影響。此外，休斯頓認為，由于iCloud剛剛問世，用戶多大程度上能得心應手地管理并同步其iCloud數據，仍然是個未知數。用戶能否熟練使用不同的蘋果用戶賬戶與其他人共享自己收藏的音樂？用戶能否在編輯Word文檔的同時，與Dropbox或者谷歌文檔（Google Docs）的用戶共享該文件？

????“Dropbox在各類不同平臺上都能順暢運行。”休斯頓表示：“用戶會對蘋果提出同樣的要求，但我認為，他們不可能如愿以償。”

????Box.net是家面向企業用戶的內容管理服務提供商。其首席執行官兼聯合創始人亞倫?萊維對蘋果進入云服務領域一事欣然接受。他也贊同休斯頓的觀點，認為iCloud并不會擠垮Box.net等第三方云內容提供商。[這家初創公司最近剛剛在一輪融資中從風險資本機構安德森?霍洛維茨基金（Andreessen Horowitz）等投資者手中融到了4,800萬美元。]

????他說：“史蒂夫?喬布斯不過是借iCloud來整合消費者從蘋果購買的產品。其它企業完全不必擔心。”

????如果iCloud確實像宣傳的那樣好，那對龐大的蘋果用戶而言自然是錦上添花；但其他用戶則很可能會撞上蘋果“圍墻花園”的外墻，從而對其心生怨恨。

????萊維進一步分析說，許多消費者和用戶都不會考慮只從單一的某一家公司采購全部所需產品。比如，多數用戶都不會只從微軟（Microsoft）一家公司采購從臺式機、操作系統、到打印機等外圍設備的全部產品。

????“對云服務領域內的初創公司來說，有利之處在于，這兒并非蘋果的天下，也不是微軟或谷歌某一家公司的天下。”他說：“如果用戶需要連接不同技術平臺的軟件和解決方案，云服務對于個人用戶來說絕對是個好東西；而對企業用戶而言，云服務也絕對能帶來戰略優勢。我們認為，云領域的致勝戰略在于：開放、互聯和不可知。”

????譯者：大海

????When Steve Jobs took the wraps off iCloud earlier this week, many cheered.

????Apple was finally charging into the cloud space with a service that could stand up to recent offerings from Google (GOOG) and Amazon (AMZN), providing storage of music, photos, videos, apps and other documents with quick and easy access via any Apple device.

????On the flip side, the announcement left some wondering whether iCloud threatens current third-party offerings, particularly popular cloud-based storage and file-syncing services that offer similar features.

????"Where's the fight?" says Drew Houston, CEO and co-founder of Dropbox, the popular file-syncing service that whizzed past the 25 million user milestone last April. "Steve Jobs is building this for the Apple (AAPL) world, but we're building this for everyone. It's really apples and oranges."

????Houston brings up the example of his mom, who owns a Windows netbook and Android device. For people like her, who are outside Apple's closed ecosystem, iCloud won't cut it. And because iCloud is still in its infancy, Houston feels there are still questions surrounding how thoroughly users will be able to manage and sync up their iCloud data. Can you share your music with others with different Apple user IDs? Can you share a Word doc with another user a la Dropbox or Google Docs and work on the same file simultaneously?

????"Dropbox works well across various platforms," Houston says. "Everyone will demand the same of Apple, and I just don't think they're going to get that."

????Aaron Levie, CEO and co-founder of Box.net, the enterprise-focused content management service, welcomes Apple to the space but echoes Houston, saying that iCloud won't crush third-party operators like his own. (Most recently, the startup raised $48 million during a funding round that included investors like venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.)

????"Steve Jobs is really selling this as a way to synchronize all the things that you're buying from him, and enterprises aren't really worried about that," he says.

????If iCloud works as advertised, it'll be a boon for a good chunk of Apple device owners, but others may run up against the walls of Apple's so-called "walled garden" and quickly come to resent them.

????Levie argues that many consumers and businesses don't think about buying the full vertical solution from a single company: meaning, many don't just go to, say, Microsoft (MSFT) exclusively to buy everything from their desktop, operating system, and peripherals like printers.

????"The advantage for any startup in this space is that this is not an Apple-owned world, a Microsoft-owned world, or a Google-owned world," he says. "You want software and solutions that sit in between the various technologies that you're using, and I think that's a boon for any of the consumer players. It's absolutely a strategic advantage for all of the enterprise players, and we think it's really the winning strategy in this space: to be open, to be connected, to be agnostic."