According to a recent Microsoft-commissioned online study, at least 77% of cloud-familiar consumers have content stored on a device and have not backed up that content somewhere. In this same study, it was found that 69% of respondents would rather lose their device (e.g. a mobile phone or tablet) itself than the content (pictures, videos, music, documents) stored on it.
It is for this reason that Microsoft continues to offer unwavering support to its customers via their online backup tool recently dubbed OneDrive, changed from SkyDrive after a lost legal tussle. It is worth noting that current customers will be able to use their existing SkyDrive credentials to access their files in OneDrive because it is essentially the same service..
Hence the launch of Microsoft OneDrive – the exact similar service as SkyDrive but with a host of new features such as improved video sharing and newly updated apps for Windows Phone, iOS, Android and their popular gaming platform, Microsoft XBOX.
As a celebration of this launch, Microsoft has given the first 100,000 customers who access their OneDrive account after the launch an additional 100 GB of complimentary storage for one year (customers will receive a notice if they are among the lucky 100,000).Normally, OneDrive offers 7 GB of free storage to its customers.
You can Customers can monitor this announcement on the official OneDrive Twitter account.
“When someone picks up their phone, tablet or any other device, they just want all of their favorite photos and the documents they need at their fingertips — they don’t want to have to hunt for them. That’s the lens we are taking with OneDrive. We’re building it right into all of the latest Microsoft devices and services — from Xbox to Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 to Office — but we’re also making sure it’s available on the Web and across all other platforms including iOS and Android, so your photos, videos and files are all available anytime you need them.” said Chris Jones, corporate VP of OS Services at Microsoft.
New features that accompany the availability of OneDrive include automatic camera backup for Android that will make it easier than ever for customers to upload photos from their Android phone to their other devices and a video transcoding service as well.
OneDrive also has a monetization model where customers have an option to purchase storage in 50GB, 100GB and 200GB increments post the free 7 GB storage space.
Current customers who refer friends will receive up to 5 GB of free storage (in 500MB increments meaning you are supposed to convert a total of 10 friends to start using OneDrive to benefit) and you will receive an additional 3 GB of free storage by turning on and utilizing the camera backup feature that directly accesses your camera gallery and backs up your pictures.
