After finding out that people will actually use OneDrive to its maximum capacity once given out for free, Microsoft takes back the free usage offer and slashes it immensely. Unlimited storage caps for Office 365 Home, Personal and University subscribers is dropping to 1 TB, and the free 15 GB everyone originally gets has been cut to 5GB.
Mac Observer tells Insiders that the tech giant said in a blog post that the reason for the slashing of memory capacity was due to the large amounts of free storage people were using. Some users were reported to use as much as 75TB, which is 14,000 times the Microsoft average.
100GB and 200GB first time user paid plans are also getting replaced with a 50GB option that sells for $1.99, according to PC Magazine.
In an effort to pacify irate reactions to the storage cut, Microsoft made a reminder of how much space the determined capacities actually have. OneDrive free with 5GB, for example, can store about 6,600 Office documents or 1,600 photos (given that images are JPEG and 9-megapixels). And Office 365 with 1TB creates a cache for 1 million documents or 330,000 pictures.
PC World compares the prices of OneDrive to the $9.99 per month that Dropbox and Google Drive provide to its users. The 1TB and Office 365 Personal are available to users for $6.99 per month, which is still relatively more affordable.
Microsoft further added that the company wants to remove focus on "extreme backup scenarios" and turn its attention to high-value productivity and collaboration that benefit the majority of their users. Public Relations officers of the company are of course apologetic and admit that they offered too much at a very low price, and the company is reaping the consequences of the wrong move.
The changes are expected to be implemented by the start of next year.
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