Microsoft Completes Its OneDrive Rebranding, Adds Features

Microsoft today officially launched OneDrive, the successor to the company's SkyDrive cloud storage service. The software giant retired the brand after the British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB) won a trademark case in the United Kingdom last summer.

Chris Jones, corporate vice president of Windows Services, announced the switch in a Feb. 19 blog post. "Today we are thrilled to announce the global availability of OneDrive," he wrote. Suggesting that the transition should be a smooth one for current SkyDrive customers, Jones said that "your files are ready in the new OneDrive experience."

The changes go beyond OneDrive's name, added Jones. New capabilities include "automatic camera backup for Android and the ability to share and view videos just as easily as photos." Like SkyDrive before it, OneDrive apps are available for iOS, Android and Mac, he said. The software is also bundled with Windows, Windows Phone and Xbox One.

Microsoft is also rolling out a new monthly payment plan and offering 3GB of additional storage for users of the automatic picture upload feature. OneDrive is free for the first 7GB of storage. Prices range from $25 per year for an additional 50GB of storage to $100 per year for an additional 200GB. Users can earn up to 5GB (in 500MB increments) by referring their friends.

OneDrive is Microsoft's answer to popular cloud storage services like Dropbox, Box and Google Drive. And like its competitors, Microsoft also offers a business-flavored version of OneDrive (previously SkyDrive Pro). "With OneDrive for Business, companies can give their employees the ability to store, sync, and collaborate on files across multiple devices with ease, manageability, and security," stated Jones.

:story: eWEEK