Microsoft has sent an email to all of its customers, announcing that it will modify the OneDrive storage plan. Before the use of OneDrive came with 15GB free, which will become only 5GB, and the other 15GB bonus for images from the camera will also be discontinued. If you are using more than 5GB at this time on your OneDrive, we advise you to take some steps to not be too late, when this change is applied.
As we can see in the message below:
“Changes to OneDrive
We would like to inform you about some future changes to OneDrive. In 10 / 08 / 2016, the amount of storage that comes with OneDrive will be changed from 15 GB to 5 GB. We will also discontinue the 15 GB bonus for camera images. Learn more in our Frequently Asked Questions.
You do not have to take any action because your OneDrive account is currently under the new storage limit. Even if you are not currently affected, we would like to update you on all important changes to OneDrive. If you want to verify your account, you can visit the Storage page.
We understand that these changes have a major impact on services that you depend on. We would like to apologize for any inconvenience these changes may cause. We made a difficult decision, but it was the way we found it to allow OneDrive to work in the future.
Thank you for using OneDrive.
- OneDrive team ”
This change will also affect Office 365 Home users and University registrations. Paid storage plans will also change, from 50GB to $ 1,99 monthly.
Office 365 Personal users can benefit from 1TB with a monthly subscription of $ 6.99 monthly or $ 69,99 per year, and Office 365 Home users can benefit from 1TB for 5 people with a subscription of $ 9,99 monthly or $ 99,99 annually. Before you make a subscription Microsoft offers you the opportunity to try Office 365 for free for 1 month.
If you have a paid subscription that does not have unlimited storage, these changes will not affect the amount of storage (or bonuses) you have, as long as your subscription is still active.
I honestly did not understand and Microsoft itself does not explain exactly why the change. How does she respond in her support faQ .
Why are we making these changes?
It was a difficult business decision that came with thoughtful analysis and thought. However, such decisions are never easy. We commit to our free storage limits and want to focus on delivering high value for productivity and collaboration, experiences that benefit most of our users. If we continue with the current offers, we would not be able to sustain our growth and deliver the reliable service you can count on. These changes were necessary to ensure that we can continue to offer a collaborative, connected and intelligent service.
In my opinion, I think she is looking more into the future profits she may have with these changes, as the very answer of why change leads us to think about it.
With this decision she continues just one step ahead of Dropbox, which offers 2GB free and which also supports Office 365, and now matches iCloud in free plans, both will now offer 5GB free. This decision by Microsoft can upset many people, and make them migrate to other services like Google Drive and MEGA. Google Drive continues to offer 15GB free and your subscriptions are 100GB for $ 1,99 / month and 1TB for $ 9,99 / month. MEGA offers 50GB free and a 200GB storage plan and 1TB of bandwidth for $ 4.99 per month, and a maximum of 4TB of storage and 8TB of bandwidth for $ 29,99 / month.
Going back to the new storage limits, here's what you'll be capturing:
- With the 5GB you will be able to save approximately 1 million Office documents or 1.600 photos *.
- Already in Office 365 with 1 TB: You will have enough space to save approximately 1 million Office documents or 330.000 photos *.
* Note that this statistic was based on photos with 9 megapixel JPEG format. And Office files at 7 MB. Capacity varies depending on content. each file.
