Once upon a time, companies did lots on stuff on big mainframes and minicomputers. These devices were centralized, and you were given what the high priests of Data Processing saw fit go give you.
As PC came to be, computing moved out to the desktop/laptop and away from the big iron. Innovation and chaos commenced. To control the chaos, "servers" emerged. To lower costs and improve services, "clouds" emerged. All of this happened over 25 years.
Enter the "new" client devices -- smartphones/tablets. These devices are increasingly tied to cloud-based APIs and services that are tightly controlled by the vendor providing the service. With cloud IaaS vendors like Amazon, that' ok -- they are offering a commodity. For PaaS vendors like Google or Microsoft or Salesforce.com, it's a bigger deal -- when those vendors decide that some application or API is end of life, you're screwed.
Basically, we're entering a cycle/era similar to the mainframe era that was left behind in the 80's and 90's.
Google Reader for ex ? :)
Simply restating that 'the power could be in the hand of the users' without evidence to back it up (or pros/cons) leaves us hanging.
IE: Intro: Most users choose Amazon for cloud purposes, but there are many more options.
Conclusion: Options are available to users such as x, y, and z. X provides a and b over Amazon, but lacks c and d. Y and Z are both fairly new to the market, but are showing friction in the products P1 and P2.
Rather than just restating: 'there are many more options.'
