On Wednesday, Chris Jones, corporate vice president of Windows services, announced the "re-launch" of Microsoft's cloud storage service, OneDrive.
As previously reported, the name was changed from SkyDrive due to Microsoft losing a trademark case against British Sky Broadcasting (BSkyB) back in July 2013. BSkyB, which had its own cloud offering Sky Store & Share but shut it down in 2011, was afraid consumers would be confused by Microsoft's cloud storage. The courts agreed.
Microsoft settled with BSkyB for an undisclosed amount. BSkyB in turn allowed Microsoft to continue to use the SkyDrive name until it found a suitable alternative. The new name, OneDrive, now reflects Microsoft's vision of one platform, one service and one interface. The new name just makes more sense than the previous label.
"When we announced the new name OneDrive, we noted how it is much more aligned with our vision for the future," Jones writes. "Our goal is to make it as easy as possible for you to get all of your favorite stuff in one place—one place that is accessible via all of the devices you use every day, at home and at work."
For new customers, Microsoft is offering a default 7 GB of storage space. Customers who refer ten friends can receive up to 5 GB of extra storage (500 MB per friend who signs on). Microsoft will even tack on another 3 GB of space if customers use OneDrive to back up the photos stored on their device.
Wait, there's more! Customers needing more than 15 GB of space can add 50 GB for $25 per year, 100 GB for $50 per year and 200 GB for $100 per year.
"To celebrate the official launch of OneDrive, today we will also give 100,000 people 100 GB of free storage for 1 year. That's 10 PB of free storage—enough storage space for a photo of everyone on the planet. If you want to be one of those 100,000, keep an eye on @OneDrive for clues," Jones writes.
Jones states that OneDrive is excellent for sharing documents, as users can work on Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents using the free online version of Office in OneDrive. The service is also great for storing, viewing and sharing photos and videos, such as posting videos directly to Facebook or sending an email with an attached picture with just one click.
"The deep integration with so many of the products you already use means you never have to worry about manually saving your photos and videos," Jones writes.
To get started with OneDrive, head here.
