Demand for cloud services is at all-time high. Apple has got iCloud and Microsoft offers SkyDrive, which comes with 25GB of free storage. And now, Google has jumped onto the bandwagon and could release its own cloud storage platform soon.

Google may launch its Google Drive service as early as next week, as reported by TheNextWeb, giving 5GB of free storage to its users. The Web site predicts that Google will release a new domain (drive.google.com), where users can sign up to get 5GB of online space to storage files. Of course, users can expand their storage by subscribing to premium service. The Next Web claims to have received this information from a partner firm working with Google on designing Google Drive platform.

Reportedly, Google Drive has already gone through the development and testing phases and Google is all set to raise curtains from its new service which could become as popular as Gmail and Google Docs. The guys over at TechCrunch were able to find Google Drive app on Monday. We are waiting eagerly for Google to activate its new domain this week, which currently shows "not found" error.

Meanwhile, Google's bet could be a serious threat to Dropbox, which gives 2GB of free storage. Dropbox app is widely popular on Google's android platform. But if Google's next mobile OS dubbed Android v5 Jelly Bean comes with deep Google Drive integration, it will finish the business of Dropbox on Android phones. According to an estimate, more than 30 million Android users use Dropbox for backing up data from cell phones. With Google offering 3GB of more storage, Dropbox might see its successful run on the Android come to an end.

(reported by Johnny Wills, edited by Dave Clark)