Microsoft has confirmed that subscribers to Office 365 are to be offered unlimited OneDrive storage in a move that will give rivals Dropbox and Google something to think about.
Anyone interested in the deal, which is currently being rolled out, just needs to sign up to OneDrive to receive their unlimited storage space, although the offer may not be immediately available to all customers according to some reports, which suggest it may take several months to apply the changes to every account.
Subscribers to Office 365 Home, Personal and University are eligible for the freebie, which will hugely benefit anyone who owns a Windows Phone device, as unlimited OneDrive storage will mean photos and other important files can be constantly backed up on the go.
[themecolor]Google and Dropbox will need to react[/themecolor]
Several months ago, Office 365 subscribers were given 1TB of OneDrive storage space in a bid by Microsoft to head off its closest competitors, Dropbox and Google. This latest move, Microsoft says, is to make “OneDrive the world’s cloud storage leader”. Currently, Dropbox and Google’s unlimited cloud storage services with Office software cost more than Microsoft’s and Office 365 offers a wider variety of tools than the other two services.
There’s always a possibility that Google and Dropbox will change their offerings in response to Microsoft’s latest deal. Last time Microsoft increased its OneDrive storage to 1TB, Dropbox lowered its prices, but Google has not yet made a change. In the future, though, it may be forced to reduce its prices too.
Microsoft’s latest offer has been interpreted as a clear attempt to persuade people to invest in Office 365 and, as the price of storage continues to fall, maybe the likes of Dropbox will struggle if users are less willing to continue paying the same prices for cloud storage as they do for their software tools. Only time will tell if Microsoft’s bold strategy will pay off.
