Consumer cloud adoption during H1 2012 is quite strong according to IHS iSuppli, with personal subscriptions to online storage services reaching 375 million-- 75% of earlier iSuppli estimates of 500m users for 2012. 

The analyst has no firm cloud storage user totals for 2011, but estimates global subscribers (to either free or paid services) at the time to around 150m. iSuppli forecasts subscribers will reach 625m in 2013 before growing to 1.3 billion by 2017. 

"The cloud is a game changer in an age of near-ubiquitous mobile broadband, offering benefits to consumers and cloud service providers alike,” the analyst remarks. "For consumers, cloud services are intended to manage and store user-generated data or purchased content, such as music, ebooks, pictures or videos... Meanwhile technology companies are looking at the cloud as a way to generate revenue.”

Giants of the Apple, Microsoft, Google and Amazon variety already use the cloud to sell hardware, content and other cloud storage services-- services similar to equivalent offerings from pure-play cloud storage providers such as Dropbox, Mozy, Carbonite and SugarSunc. 

However iSuppli warns cloud storage is expensive to provide, suggesting pure-play providers should team up with mobile networks operators in order to differentiate services. 

Go Consumers Aggressively Migrate Data to Cloud Storage in H2 2012