Interesting article in the WSJ about the Online Storage Wars (subscription required).

I was working on such a service this time last year. Decided to exit the effort when AOL started offering 5 gigs for free and I had come to the same conclusion as AOL.

“Storage is really boring for the consumer — like going to the dentist or buying life insurance,” says Gio Hunt, senior vice president of Strategic Development for AOL. “Our focus is on a whole new category of offerings” beyond basic storage.

Dick and Sally Internet are just not going to store their stuff remotely online until they are given a compelling reason to do so. The core apps still need to get a step function better. I do remain convinced that as consumers embrace a digital lifestyle a strong need to remotely store, access, and share financially and emotionally valuable files will emerge to the point where such service becomes as common place as anti-virus and firewall software today. I also believe that consumers are going to want all there their stuff in one place as opposed to the point solutions that they use today. Figuring out the proper application overlay will be the key to market success.

I had an interesting meeting last week about such an application. One that solves an obvious clear pain in the market with no known solution. That is all I can say for now, but if the technology is there to support the app that was described to me, it could be pretty hot.