Amazon Web ServicesMichael Arrington got the scoop on a new Amazon Web Service called S3 that is going to change the startup world for a long time to come.

To put it simply, S3 is an infinitely large hard drive, available to developers at a dirt cheap price - don’t forget Amazon’s industry leading infrastructure that will ensure speedy transfers and reliability. Developers have the ability to read, write, and delete an unlimited number of files, via SOAP and REST interfaces, up to 5GB in size!

So, how much does it cost? Nothing to start! There’s no minimum storage and no startup fee. For storage, you’ll pay $0.15 per GB per month; for bandwidth, $0.20 per GB. That’s merely $15 per month to store 100GB of data, with a $20 charge for bandwidth on your upload.

If there ever was a startup to compete with flickr, youTube, or MySpace, when S3 launches tonight they will see the light at the end of the tunnel. I know numerous ideas have run through my mind since hearing this news.

Update: Rob Hof at Business Week has posted his thoughts on this exciting move by Amazon.