Mobile cloud storage: a contextual experience

Abstract

In an increasingly connected world, users access personal or shared data, stored "in the cloud" (e.g., Dropbox, Skydrive, iCloud) with multiple devices. Despite the popularity of cloud storage services, little work has focused on investigating cloud storage users' Quality of Experience (QoE), in particular on mobile devices. Moreover, it is not clear how users' context might affect QoE. We conducted an online survey with 349 cloud service users to gain insight into their usage and affordances. In a 2-week follow-up study, we monitored mobile cloud service usage on tablets and smartphones, in real-time using a mobile-based Experience Sampling Method (ESM) questionnaire. We collected 156 responses on in-situ context of use for Dropbox on mobile devices. We provide insights for future QoE-aware cloud services by highlighting the most important mobile contextual factors (e.g., connectivity, location, social, device), and how they affect users' experiences while using such services on their mobile devices.