Only 50% of Apple Store customers backup their iPhones? Sounds about right

Proving the IT help desk stereotype that most consumers are absolutely clueless about maintaining their technology, it appears that only about 50 percent of Apple Store customers who bring their iPhones for service have actually backed up their devices by synchronizing them with iTunes, “a little Birdie” tells tech writer David Chartier.

If true — and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was — it shows that Apple’s upcoming iCloud service, which automatically backs up iPhone data when it’s plugged into a power source, will be a boon for consumers. It’ll finally get the lazy bums who never synchronize their iPhones, and ultimately complain the most when they lose all of their precious data, to have some sort of backup.

As someone who spent many years on the IT help desk battlefield, I don’t find it very surprising that many consumers completely ignore the need for an iPhone backup. As with any sort of computer data, consumers generally don’t realize how valuable their iPhone photos or carefully crafted contact list actually are until they lose them. And with consumers already having a difficult time figuring out how to backup their actual computers, I suppose it makes sense that their phones would be even worse off.

So the best option, not surprisingly, is to take the consumer out of the equation altogether. After an initial setup, iCloud will do its backup work without you being the wiser. It’s similar to how Apple’s Time Machine technology helped to simplify desktop backups on Mac OSX, but it’s even more simple since consumers won’t have to worry about purchasing any extra hardware. And ultimately, iCloud’s automatic backups show the true potential of cloud computing for regular users.

Photo via Dan Taylor

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