With support built into every Mac and iOS device, Apple's iCloud is the most-used cloud media service by U.S. consumers, a new survey has found.
iCloud accounts for 27 percent of cloud customers in America, according to new data published Thursday by Strategy Analytics. That places Apple's service ahead of second-place Dropbox, with 17 percent, and third-place Amazon, with 15 percent.
Apple's rival Google comes in fourth with its Google Drive service, used by 10 percent of U.S. consumers. And in fifth is the cloud movie service Ultraviolet, used by just 4 percent of respondents.
The survey of 2,300 people found that cloud storage is particularly popular among people ages 20 to 24, and the most common use for cloud storage is music. Of those surveyed, 90 percent of iCLoud, Amazon and Google Drive users store music files in the cloud.
The story is different with Dropbox users, as 45 percent of them use the service to store music files.
"Music is currently the key battleground in the war for cloud domination," said Ed Barton, director of Digital Media at Strategy Analytics. "Google is tempting users by giving away free storage for 20,000 songs which can be streamed to any Android device, a feature both Amazon and Apple charge annual subscriptions for.
"However, the growth of video streaming and the desire to access content via a growing range of devices will see services such as the Hollywood-backed digital movie initiative Ultraviolet – currently used by 4% of Americans – increase market share."
In its quarterly earnings report in January, Apple revealed that it has more than 250 million active iCloud users, growing significantly from 190 million in October. Users are automatically prompted to open a free iCloud account with 5 gigabytes of storage when setting up a new iOS device.