Microsoft announced a few weeks ago that it would be changing the name of its SkyDrive cloud service to OneDrive, and this morning the full rebrand went into effect. This doesn’t mean much, as existing apps will continue to work with the service.
In fact, the iOS app has already been rebranded, and it looks like Windows, Mac and Android apps will be updated today with the new name. But there are a few changes being made that are worth noting, like the new Dropbbox-like referral bonuses…
From the announcement on Microsoft’s OneDrive blog:
“As part of that goal, we’re doing more than just changing the name with today’s release: We’re rolling out several new capabilities, including automatic camera backup for Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easily as photos. We’ve also added new ways for you to earn more storage—on top of the 7 GB we already give you for free. Customers who refer friends can now receive up to 5 GB (in 500 MB increments) for each friend who accepts an invitation to OneDrive, and we’ll even give you 3 GB just for using the camera backup feature, since we want to help make sure you never lose another photo. There’s even a new monthly payment plan, if you’d like a little more flexibility in how you use your storage.”
And for those unfamiliar with the service, here’s a promo clip:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw1ciTl5YK4
So what Microsoft is saying is that it will give you 7GB of storage for free, just for signing up, and an additional 3GB for free if you enable the camera backup feature in one of its mobile apps. And referrals will earn you an additional 500MB of storage each, up to 6GB.
If that’s not enough space, Microsoft—like everyone else—offers paid storage plans. After the 7GB free option, there’s a 50GB plan that costs $25 per year. After that, there’s a 100GB plan for $50 per year, and it maxes out at 100GB of storage for $100.
I haven’t personally used Microsoft’s cloud service, so I couldn’t tell you how it compares to Dropbox and others. I know it offers quite a bit more free space than Dropbox does (but also far less than others), so that should at least get it in the conversation.
If you’re interested, you can download the OneDrive iOS app here.