OneDrive Storage U-Turn

Microsoft announced today that it’s basically blowing away most of OneDrive.

From the link above…

• We’re no longer planning to offer unlimited storage to Office 365 Home, Personal, or University subscribers. Starting now, those subscriptions will include 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
• 100 GB and 200 GB paid plans are going away as an option for new users and will be replaced with a 50 GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016.
• Free OneDrive storage will decrease from 15 GB to 5 GB for all users, current and new. The 15 GB camera roll storage bonus will also be discontinued. These changes will start rolling out in early 2016.

We’re taking the following steps to make this transition as easy as possible for customers:

• If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and have stored in excess of 1 TB, you will be notified of this change and will be able to keep your increased storage for at least 12 months.
• If you are an Office 365 consumer subscriber and find that Office 365 no longer meets your needs, a pro-rated refund will be given. To learn more visit the FAQ.
• If you are using more than 5 GB of free storage, you will continue to have access to all files for at least 12 months after these changes go into effect in early 2016. In addition, you can redeem a free one-year Office 365 Personal subscription (credit card required), which includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage.
• Current customers of standalone OneDrive storage plans (such as a 100 or 200 GB plans) are not affected by these changes.

I thought that Microsoft was beginning to change and not do dumb moves like this any more!

When Microsoft first rolled out a Music Service called MSN Music, I joined up and then they killed it, I still have those files which I PAID for and can’t use.

There have been may initiatives from Microsoft over the yeas and time after time, the seem to release something get bored and drop it.   Where would iTunes be today if Apple kept dropping features, changes names, iTunes is a silly name today because it does a lot more than sell Music.

Look at Microsoft Music Offering over the last few years, it’s been Zune, Xbox Music and now Groove,  why can’t Microsoft just build something and iterate on it over time, why does it have to kill brands and cause confusion all of the time?

TechNet for IT Pros killed out of no where?  Did Microsoft really reply to the community (IT Pros) that recommends its services and software? No.  I can accept things are changing and the industry is moving to the cloud, so why hasn’t Microsoft replaced TechNet with the equivalent for Azure?

This is an issue over trust for me, if you want me to use your service, then don’t pull it so I lose out when I have invested time and money into it, because you will only ever lose customers. I have just signed up for DropBox as they seem to be consistent and their offering is faster.

Microsoft you should be able to get this right and at this time, you NEED to get this right.   How long can you continue punishing your follows before they (we) stop caring any more?  Once we stop caring then we shall stop pushing your services and products!