Cost effectiveness is ALWAYS for the companies, NEVER for the consumer. It never has been, why should it be now?

If you're using cable internet and not still on DSL or dial-up, then your shitty connection is entirely the decision of your ISP. I learned this from my ex who was a tech at a major cable company. Bandwidth is determined entirely by the company. It's just another way for them to charge some people more than others. That's why one city's highest bandwidth can be 10 times slower or faster than a city 2 hours away. 

You don't have to be on facebook or twitter or any other social networking site to be in the cloud. If you use a cell phone you're already part of the cloud. 

Apple's cloud isn't going anywhere, and neither is Googles. Those are the two at the head of the machine. If smaller cloud services fail that just gives G and A more steam. 

 

~Shane