Om Malik for GigaOM:

After long history of false alarms, [Google’s online storage service] might just see the day in early April.

Google Drive, or GDrive as some have called it, may be launching soon. The rumors have been around long enough, that’s for sure.

I think that comparing Google Drive to Dropbox, as many people have (including the above quoted GigaOM article) is misleading. Dropbox already has a huge market share, and it’s doubtful that users are going to switch their current habits in favor of Google’s storage services. It’s Dropbox that wants to become Google, not the other way around.

Rather, I predict Google Drive will be more of an attempt to copy Apple’s iCloud functionality. It will be a service that will be used alongside Dropbox, rather than replacing Dropbox, and GDrive users will be primarily Android owners. Google has long been attempting to replace traditional operating systems with web browsers. Google Drive will be an attempt at giving the browser a hard drive. However, those who buy into the suite of Google products (Chrome, Android, Google Apps) will no doubt get the most value. It will make life easier for some, but isn’t filling any sort of gaping hole in Google’s services and won’t change anyone’s life.

Google Drive: it’s about time, but it’s nothing exciting.

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