Fifty percent of iPhone owners who have iPhones swapped at the Genius Bar have never plugged them into a computer to backup or sync. That's according to a "little birdie" that former Macworld Associate Editor David Chartier (now at AgileBits) knows. It also suggests iCloud will save a lot of headaches and lost data.





This is a big reason, according to this birdie, for why Apple Store Geniuses are excited about iCloud. Backupophobes can get away with never touching iTunes after activating an iOS device. But folks obviously need to plug them into some kind of power source to recharge which, combined with a reachable WiFi network, is what triggers iCloud's automatic backup feature. Sure, these customers can manually reinstall apps one by one from the store, but they have no way to recover any of their data or media purchased on the device. That holds true for contacts, too, if users didn't sign up for MobileMe or even Google's free (and, in my experience, terrible) contact sync.

Apple's iCloud, with automated wi-fi sync and instant backup to the cloud will be a welcome feature for those millions who never sync or backup their current iOS devices.