Doing a crappy subset of their job will become irrelevant - I certainly agree about that. Doing the "whole" job is really what we are debating. I'd make the case that having lots of crappy different services out there is what provides the case for something that can aggregate, backup and provide access to those pieces. (Only time will prove that right or wrong.)
> the amount of digital data i have is not growing, it's shrinking at an alarming pace
You then list how you have new digital data in the form of Google documents :-) They used to only have a few types of data ("documents" and spreadsheets). You now also get presentations, drawings, forms, tables and collections. And guess what, Google do indeed provide a crappy subset of their experience. Have you every tried to edit/view a Google doc on an Android device? I'd be delighted to have those docs also sitting in Dropbox available on all my devices at all times and to the many local programs I have that provide better viewers/editors than Google ever will. (Note this doesn't mean I want Dropbox to be the primary location for them, just that I want Dropbox to provide enhanced access and backup.)
> dropbox keeps track of binary files. it doesn't currently handle new, less tangible types of data, and until it does its potential is pretty limited
It does handle photos and sharing. I agree that binary plus photos is limiting, but the whole point is that by expanding beyond that they will have the opportunity for growth.
> the amount of digital data i have is not growing, it's shrinking at an alarming pace
You then list how you have new digital data in the form of Google documents :-) They used to only have a few types of data ("documents" and spreadsheets). You now also get presentations, drawings, forms, tables and collections. And guess what, Google do indeed provide a crappy subset of their experience. Have you every tried to edit/view a Google doc on an Android device? I'd be delighted to have those docs also sitting in Dropbox available on all my devices at all times and to the many local programs I have that provide better viewers/editors than Google ever will. (Note this doesn't mean I want Dropbox to be the primary location for them, just that I want Dropbox to provide enhanced access and backup.)
> dropbox keeps track of binary files. it doesn't currently handle new, less tangible types of data, and until it does its potential is pretty limited
It does handle photos and sharing. I agree that binary plus photos is limiting, but the whole point is that by expanding beyond that they will have the opportunity for growth.