Following earlier moves which saw Dropbox’s cloud storage service integrated into devices like the big-screened Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy S III, Galaxy tablets, and even some Sony Ericsson Android phones, for example, Dropbox is today is announcing integration with newer Samsung devices: the recently launched Samsung Galaxy Camera and the Galaxy Note II. For Samsung fans who buy into the whole ecosystem, that means that Dropbox is now an option for syncing data across all your devices, including desktop, tablet, mobile and camera.
Dropbox says the integrations will ask users when they first start their device if they have a Dropbox account to sync their photos to. The Galaxy Note II will also include a deeper type of integration which will allow the photos and videos stored in the default Android Gallery app the ability to automatically sync to the user’s Dropbox’s folders. Whenever the Gallery app is opened, users will see all their photos from across Dropbox, even if those weren’t originally taken on their phones themselves. It’s setting Dropbox up to be more of a universal photo gallery of sorts – a third-party alternative to something like Apple’s Photostream, perhaps.
In addition to the preloaded applications, Galaxy Camera and Note II users will also receive 50 GB of free space for two years, which is about as long as most people hang on to their phones these days.
This news comes shortly after Dropbox rival Yandex scored a deal to get its competing service Yandex.Disk preloaded on Samsung Ultrabooks in Russia, and announced English language support and plans to expand – possibly through device partnerships – to other markets. Cloud storage partnerships with OEMs are nothing new – HTC also works with Dropbox while Box has deals with LG, but Yandex’s announcement stood out for offering a lifetime account instead of a one or two-year deal, which is typical.