Microsoft's changes to its OneDrive personal cloud storage prices reflect badly on the company, and have left users angry and bewildered.
Most people have at least 30GB of free OneDrive storage: 15GB as standard, and an additional 15GB bonus easily obtained by setting the camera roll on a mobile device to use OneDrive for image backup. An additional 100GB was available for $1.99 per month.
The cost of storage continues to fall; but Microsoft has gone against the trend by announcing greatly increased prices. Free storage decreases to 5GB and the 15GB camera roll bonus is discontinued, so typical users will go from 30GB to 5GB for free, a reduction of more than 80 per cent.
Further, the cost of buying extra storage is doubling, with just 50GB available for $1.99 per month.
These changes bite harder for most users than the removal of unlimited storage for Office 365 customers, now replaced with a 1TB limit.
Microsoft states that the reason for the price hike is "a small number of users" who apparently used up to 75TB on the Office 365 unlimited plan. That is exactly what you would expect if you offer unlimited storage. A onedrive.com blog post lets slip that this 75TB is "14,000 times the average", so not a common occurrence.
Microsoft's OneDrive price hike has wrecked its cloud strategy • The Register
Most people have at least 30GB of free OneDrive storage: 15GB as standard, and an additional 15GB bonus easily obtained by setting the camera roll on a mobile device to use OneDrive for image backup. An additional 100GB was available for $1.99 per month.
The cost of storage continues to fall; but Microsoft has gone against the trend by announcing greatly increased prices. Free storage decreases to 5GB and the 15GB camera roll bonus is discontinued, so typical users will go from 30GB to 5GB for free, a reduction of more than 80 per cent.
Further, the cost of buying extra storage is doubling, with just 50GB available for $1.99 per month.
These changes bite harder for most users than the removal of unlimited storage for Office 365 customers, now replaced with a 1TB limit.
Microsoft states that the reason for the price hike is "a small number of users" who apparently used up to 75TB on the Office 365 unlimited plan. That is exactly what you would expect if you offer unlimited storage. A onedrive.com blog post lets slip that this 75TB is "14,000 times the average", so not a common occurrence.
Microsoft's OneDrive price hike has wrecked its cloud strategy • The Register
