Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) just increased their free cloud storage offering from 7 gigabytes to 15 gigabytes. Office 365 customers will received one full terabyte of storage. For those who want extra storage without paying the full price for Office 365, they can pay just $1.99 a month for 100 gigabytes or $3.99 for 200 gigabytes. If users want one full terabyte of storage, you can pay $11.49 a month.
Microsoft’s latest freebie is a competitive offer
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) wants to be a real competitor in the market of cloud storage. Other top competitors include Google Cloud Storage, Dropbox, Box, and iCloud. Unfortunately, free 15 gigabyte storage may not be enough, at least compared to Box, which offered 50 gigabytes of storage in early 2014. Google already offers 15GB of storage. Perhaps Microsoft thinks this small offering will entice customers to pay up for more storage options. The company’s executives think that since the storage feature works with Office, it has a strong advantage competitors do not have.
Over two years ago, OneDrive was first known as SkyDrive. The name had to be changed when Microsoft got in trouble for infringing on the trademark from the British-based Sky Broadcasting Group.
Microsoft hopes to boost sales for cloud service
Only time will tell if this freebie benefits the Redmond-based tech company in the long run. Right now, the company is lagging behind competitors, at least according to a Google Trend chart.
Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT)’s lead of product management Angus Logan explained his company wants to do more that just offer cloud services. His company wants to deliver productivity across all devices. He may have a point. New research indicates three out of four users actually use less than 15GB of storage on their personal computers even though many people store videos, photos, and documents. This could help the company entice users to use Microsoft OneDrive to store photos or videos they don’t store on their computers.
