Microsoft Celebrates OneDrive Launch With Free Storage Offer

Microsoft has rebranded its SkyDrive cloud storage service as OneDrive, with the promise of free extra storage for users on all platforms, including Windows, Android, iOS and Mac.

The company had been forced to change the name of the service following a legal challenge from BskyB, which alleged that Microsoft infringed on its trademark. The new name was announced last month and has now taken effect across the world.

OneDrive relaunch

While making no reference to the legal battle that forced its hand, Microsoft says the new name reflects how OneDrive is the “one” place to store files and promises that all existing SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro users will not notice a difference.

However there have been some improvements, most notably the addition of automatic camera backup on Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easy as photos.

Users of the standard OneDrive service already receive 7GB of storage, but Microsoft is offering them the chance to increase this by up to 5GB by referring friends. Each new referral earns 500MB of space, while an extra 3GB can be acquired simply by using the automatic camera backup feature on mobile.

In addition, to celebrate the launch, OneDrive will give 100,000 people 100GB of free storage for one year.

OneDrive will compete with a number of other cloud services, including Google Drive, Dropbox and Box, which recently announced plans to offer 50GB of free storage as part of its re-launched app for iOS.

How much do you know about the cloud? Try our quiz!