[Brent Simmons][1]:

> How comfortable are you with outsourcing half your app to another company? The answer should be: not at all comfortable.

Simmons’ argument has been linked all over the web as an astute damning of iCloud’s unreliable synchronization for developers to use in their apps.

I think Simmons missed something with his statement: user trust.

It’s true that developers should want to own every aspect of their app and the services it depends on — this way Apple can’t go all Google Reader on your ass.

However, developers should *also* be thinking about the trust they’re asking users to place in them, their company, their employees, and their ability to protect confidential data. What if Glassboard, which Simmons built and references, was made by a 15 year old kid as her first app? She owns your data. Do you trust her to keep it safe?

If you’re well known, or trusted by the geeks reviewing your app, then owning everything is probably fine. However, if you’re unknown and need to gain your user’s trust then iCloud seems like a better solution. As a user, I already trust Apple (App Store credit cards and all). If you‘re a new developer and use iCloud sync to store my data, then you don‘t need a bunch more trust.

As a user and blogger who doesn’t know you, I’m far more likely to give you a shot, than my trust.

So while there are technical and long-term strategic reasons not to use iCloud, I think there are also very good short-term strategic reasons *to* use iCloud.

[1]: http://inessential.com/2013/03/27/why_developers_shouldnt_use_icloud_sy