The cloud was supposed to be the future.
Everything online. Everything synced. Everything accessible anywhere. Local processing was the past. A limitation. Something to transcend.
But premium is going local again.
On-device AI instead of API calls. Local storage instead of cloud sync. Processing that happens here, not there.
Why?
Privacy, partly. What stays on your device can't be leaked. Speed, partly. No network latency means instant response. Reliability, partly. No server means no downtime.
But there's something else.
Ownership.
When processing happens locally, you control it. No subscription required. No account needed. No company to trust.
The device you bought does the work you bought it to do.
This is a luxury now. Companies charge more for on-device features. "Pro" means local. "Free" means cloud.
It's a reversal of what we expected.
The cloud was supposed to democratize computing. Instead, local is becoming the premium experience.
That's the shift worth noticing.