Microsoft puts an end to SkyDrive’s free 25GB
Microsoft’s SkyDrive begins charging its users for storage, pricing starts at for 20GB
Keeping in line with its competitors, namely Dropbox (and now Google Drive), Microsoft will begin charging for its services. This comes from a company announcement made Monday, when Microsoft also said it will start rolling out other updates and improvements to SkyDrive.
In its blog, the company noted that it’s taking a “big step” in making SkyDrive better by offering new storage options, apps that connect your different devices to the service and—brace yourself—a desktop app! Really, Microsoft? Shouldn’t the desktop thing have happened ages ago? This feature is the main reason I joined Dropbox in the first place. I still use my laptop for the bulk of my work, so it’s super convenient to just place my files into their respective folders straight from my desktop and let Dropbox handle the rest. The desktop client automatically syncs up with my iPad and my droid to ensure that I have instant access to my precious files across all my gadgets.
It’s a beautiful thing, but this isn’t a novel concept by any stretch. Microsoft making such a big deal about it is only shining a light on the fact that SkyDrive was seriously lacking before this latest list of updates. But enough ranting, an update is an update, and better late than never, right? It’s good that the company is taking steps forward, especially if it has any hope of staying in the game now that Google Drive is set to rock the filing-hosting sphere.
Google Drive has caught quite a bit of attention already, partly for the fact that the service is offering the first 5GB of storage for free. That’s more than double the free 2GB provided by Dropbox, which starts its pricing model at .99 for 50GB. Since its launch, SkyDrive graciously gave its users a whopping 25GB of storage at no cost, but starting today that’s all over. Free storage will cap off at 7GB. After that it’s per year for 20GB; for 50GB; or for 100GB.
[Tip: SkyDrive users who signed up with the service before April 22, 2012 can continue with their free 25GB by signing into SkyDrive and clicking the big blue alert link at the top of the page and then clicking the “free upgrade” button.]
Via: SAI
In: Smartphone · Tagged with: 25GB, Free, Microsoft, puts, SkyDrive’s