SkyDrive is going through some changes. Microsoft has recently adopted the Freemium business model for the tool. Basically this model offers some part of the service for free… but also some paid enhancements with the idea that the free product is so good and you use it so much, that you want more and will pay for it. It’s unclear as to how long you have to make a decision or to take action. However, the process to re-claim your 25 GB is pretty quick and simple. I’m guessing that most folks just will miss the opportunity.
SO GO GET YOURS!
I’ve wondered how long before Microsoft takes these steps. 25 GB is a ton of storage for free… 7 GB is still a lot of cloud storage. I’m currently only using about 1 GB and I have a lot of stuff in my SkyDrive. I’m a heavy user. The interesting question is would I pay $10.00/year for a total of 45 GB of storage? That’s pretty cheap. If access to it, and file size maximum (currently at 100 MB per file) increases and continues to improve (to match Dropbox), then maybe I would. Update: Skydrive individual file size limit is now 2GB per file.
In Related News: The Windows SkyDrive App brings to the Windows platform what Microsoft provided to Mac users a year ago. With Office for Mac 2011 packed a powerhouse in “Microsoft Document Connection.” This is a GREAT addition to ‘Drag n Drop’ files straight to your SkyDrive or SharePoint. No browser needed. Now, if you are a Windows user, you have the same opportunity. It looks easy enough. Under the hood it seems a lot like Windows Mesh re-skinned and re-pointed to your root SkyDrive folder.
Gizmodo has the best comparison matrix I’ve seen between all of the popular cloud storage options. Here’s the article.