Amazon Targets Photo Stream with Cloud Drive Photos

Amazon unveiled its Cloud Drive Photos for the iPhone and iPod touch over the weekend along with a companion Mac app in what looks like a move to compete with Apple's iCloud Photo Stream feature. Cloud Drive Photos includes 5 GB of storage and lets users upload images to their Amazon Cloud and then download them to other devices.

Amazon Cloud Photos for the iPhone and iPod touchAmazon Cloud Photos for the iPhone and iPod touch

Amazon said users can store about 2,000 photos, and additional storage space is available at US$10 a year for 20 GB or $50 a year for 100 GB. Amazon Cloud Drive users that are already storing files online may need to sign up for one of the paid storage plan levels since that base level 5 GB is their total storage capacity, not just for photos.

The company described the app by saying,

With the Cloud Drive Photos app, you can quickly and easily browse all the photos you've stored in Cloud Drive in a beautiful interface that brings your photos to life. Cloud Drive Photos provides a rich viewing experience similar to the Photos library of the latest-generation Kindle Fire tablets.

Cloud Drive Photos for online photo storage, Google for calendar and contact syncing, Dropbox for file storage and sharing -- and all for free. Each duplicates some of iCloud's features, is an alternative to Apple's offering, and since they're designed to easily share data between iOS, OS X, Windows, and Android OS, offer compelling cross-platform data sharing solutions.

Cloud Drive Photos is free and is available at Apple's iTunes-based App Store, and the Cloud Drive app for the Mac is a free download at the Amazon website.