iCloud May Rival Twitter, Gmail User Base Size on Launch

In terms of the size of its user base, Apple’s iCloud may immediately rival the likes of Gmail and Twitter when it debuts this fall.

Based on the findings of a proprietary survey by analyst Mike Abramsky with RBC Capital Markets, 76% of iPhone owners will use Apple’s iCloud on launch.

Those figures were derived from a poll of 1,500 respondents in early June, following iCloud’s formal introduction at Apple’s WWDC.

If the poll’s prognostication proves accurate, the forthcoming iCloud service could debut with a built-in user base that tops 150 million people out of the gate.

“This high response rate affirms the growing interest in storing, syncing and sharing music, photos and documents across multiple devices [such as] smartphones, tablets, PCs and TVs,” wrote Abramsky in the report.

Of course, a major reason why iCloud is so attractive is because it’s free to use. Yet, iTunes Match – which comes at a price – appears powerfully attractive to Apple fans as well.

Notwithstanding that the music file matching service will cost $24.99 annually, the RBC survey shows that nearly one-third of respondents plan to pay the asking price and use the services. Consequently, RBC estimates that iTunes Match will generate upwards of an additional $1.5 billion in annual revenue for Apple.

In the big picture, however, Abramsky suspects that Apple’s new services will primarily strengthen the company’s already enormous fan base. “Because it stores user data, iCloud along with iTunes is expected to enhance loyalty and stickiness of Apple’s customers, helping defend against threats from Android, helping grow a defensible install base of users who continually upgrade to next generation Macs, iPhones, iPads and iPods,” Abramsky concluded