Microsoft and their anti-consumer practices

[Ten Four]

* Google Drive only offers 15Gb free, anything above that, you have to pay for
* iCloud only offers 5Gb free, anything above that is also paid for

Unlimited photo backup on Google for free, which is what takes up the majority of the space for most average users. 15GB is 3x the amount of free storage that will be offered on OneDrive. That's significant for many people. What's next--charging for Outlook.com?

 

[Ten Four]

Very few ordinary people use Office 365 at home unless they got it for free. It's total overkill for what 99% of consumers need or want at home. Why pay when free office suites do everything needed by this 99%?

 

[HeyCori]

I don't believe that the Xbox One cloud storage forms part of your OneDrive allocation.

Oh yeah, definitely not OneDrive related. I was just using it as an example of one of Microsoft's recent mindboggling decisions.

 

[tale 85]

Contact Microsoft and let them know that you will not stand for their anti-consumer practices. It was only a year ago when Nadella's new mantra was "mobile first, cloud first." Since then, the only thing they've done for consumers is limit cloud functionality, reduce cloud storage, and allowed their mobile phone business to fall by the wayside. That is not a mobile first, cloud first company. It seems the only group Microsoft tries to please anymore are their business customers. It's time to remind Microsoft that they are not too big to fail.

Satya Nadella CEO
Email: satyan@microsoft.com (could be wrong)
Twitter: https://twitter.com/satyanadella

OneDrive
https://twitter.com/onedrive

Scott Guthrie Cloud and Enterprise Group
https://twitter.com/scottgu

Wow! Really. Why is it so hard in this world for people to pay for services received. Just like any other "unlimited" offer, certain people just grab for all they can get. Why not ask Microsoft for a list of the abusers and go thank them for screwing this up. At some point companies have to protect themselves.

 

[sinime]

If you think about it, the free tier change and the 100 gb -> 50 gb change incentivizes more people to use Office 365. Not only do they get office, but they'll also get 1TB of storage(more than enough for the average consumer). I can absolutely see my parents using it.

My wife and I started using office 365 because of the 1 TB of one drive storage per user... Having access to the latest office apps alone just wasn't enough.

Yeah the unlimited storage was nice, but I think 1TB is more than enough for my wife and I know it's enough for me.

I bet they increase the storage in the future, as the cost come down.

 

[Ten Four]

I bet they increase the storage in the future, as the cost come down.

Huh? Didn't they just do the opposite?

 

[elindalyne]

Simple math honestly. Amazon Glacier is $.007/GB or or $7.168/month for storage . Add in bandwidth costs and it's a bit more expensive. Plus you don't get Office or anything that syncs for you.

 

[Spectrum90]

Unlimited photo backup on Google for free, which is what takes up the majority of the space for most average users. 15GB is 3x the amount of free storage that will be offered on OneDrive. That's significant for many people. What's next--charging for Outlook.com?

Yes, but Google limits the resolution of photos and videos.

In general, Google has the best free plan. Microsoft has the best paid plan.

Google 1 TB: $9.99
Office 365 (1 TB and Office apps): $6.99

 

[Ten Four]

Yes, but Google limits the resolution of photos and videos.

I think you get unlimited storage of photos with resolutions up to 16mp. That is plenty for 99% of the public.

 

[several potatos]

I really hope they reverse or alter this decision. Why not just use more ad revenue from the OneDrive apps? I fear this is going to do massive damage to the brand.

 

[Laura Knotek]

Unlimited photo backup on Google for free, which is what takes up the majority of the space for most average users. 15GB is 3x the amount of free storage that will be offered on OneDrive. That's significant for many people. What's next--charging for Outlook.com?

Unlimited photo backup on Google Drive is only free if one does not choose full resolution backup.

 

[RyanGermann]

Most consumers don't understand the great "bait and switch" of "cloud computing": devices / OSes by default offer everyone 10s of gigabytes of free storage, so they put all their family photos etc. onto the cloud and get accustomed to having access via cloud-based servers... then SURPRISE: reduction of storage capacity and introduction of fees.

This is why you don't want to get "addicted" to cloud services.

Get a decent sized SD card in your mobile device, encrypt it, back it up, carry the device with you and vee-ola: better than cloud (but not as good as BlackBerry "Remote File Access" which lets you securely access terabytes of data off your home network wherever in the world you have an internet connection... but that's something I'd expect Microsoft to do as well, and one of the reasons why when BlackBerry 10 is no longer viable, I've pretty much decided that Windows 10 Mobile is my next mobile device platform.

I have to say, when I was setting up Windows 10 on my nieces old computer, I disabled / hid OneDrive from her eyes, because she doesn't need to start relying on a so-called free service that won't be free when she's got it loaded up with her priceless baby pictures.

 

[saulgould13]

@RyanGermann.

What do you care about "most consumer's"? Don't be concerned with others percieved choices. Thanks for your insight by the by.

 

[Keith Wallace]

"It seems the only group Microsoft tries to please anymore are their business customers."

Of course, this is stated in an action to complain to Microsoft about not giving away free storage. Why should Microsoft's goal be to pull in people who are saying they should be super-cheap, high-end phones and free cloud storage?

Honestly, is the alternative the high-margin hardware and services at Apple for the Google offerings that are cheaper and often inferior, while basically thriving on personal information mining? The OneDrive thing sucks, but this backlash has gotten out of hand. It's now complaining to Microsoft about every personal problem, ignoring the industry as a whole. Microsoft did what is common, pulling people in with offers, then taking them away later to make money. Giving away enough storage to cover everyone just isn't a sustainable business model.

 

[Krystianpants]

I hadn't caught up to the news yet this morning, and had missed the news. It is a disappointment for OneDrive users. But overall, it still seems like a little bit of an overreaction to call MS anti-consumer over this one flub.

It hits mobile hard. Even users who don't ever use the space May see the numbers google offers and now compare to ms and buy android with 15 gigs storage, unlimited camera uploads + 5000 songs. when users buy phones they look over the whole package. Onedrive should offer more as an incentive to buy windows phone but now it really doesn't offer anything. People like bigger numbers whether they use them or not. So MS is really screwing the phone users and the platform from gaining more market share with stunts like these.

 

[anon(6078578)]

Very few ordinary people use Office 365 at home unless they got it for free. It's total overkill for what 99% of consumers need or want at home. Why pay when free office suites do everything needed by this 99%?

The other problem is that even when you do pay, Microsoft has an annoying habit of overlooking small details that are annoying. One example being no tab functionality in Online Word which even Google Docs has! I thought the idea was to have a fully functioning version of word online, I don't want to have do download software to be able to get full functionality. I understand for advanced features but not for basic stuff.

 

[CygnusOrion]

Microsoft will realize how badly they up and come back with a tiered approach in a few days. Just you watch. They will not let this fester like the XBox One thing.

 

[pericle]

Unlimited photo backup on Google Drive is only free if one does not choose full resolution backup.

The unlimited photo backup resolution for Google Drive is set at 16 megapixels. Only anything above 16 megapixels will count towards your normal quota. 16 megapixels is ample for most smartphone users.

 

[Spectrum90]

Of course cheap people is going to whine, but those aren't who pays the bills.
Microsoft needs to make money and they have to improve the service. Freeloaders are a big burden. Things are going to improve with these changes.

 

[Bobvfr]

My wife and I started using office 365 because of the 1 TB of one drive storage per user... Having access to the latest office apps alone just wasn't enough.

Yeah the unlimited storage was nice, but I think 1TB is more than enough for my wife and I know it's enough for me.

I bet they increase the storage in the future, as the cost come down.

Me and my family (Wife, one daughter and son, I use two accounts for full office on desktop and Surface) and to be brutally honest it was the OneDrive almost as much as Office that swayed me, but like you 1Tb is probably enough, I doubt we use 1g between all 4 people so as long as we carry on with our subscription and normal usage it isn't going to make a scrap of difference.

But as far as I see it the headline of the maniac 75Tb using monster is just the scare tactic that has backfired so badly and either made MS or at least the reporter on here look stupid (Someone does).

And although I am normally a "If you want a good service, you pay for it" sort of person, this decision by MS almost seems to be a direct kick in the teeth aimed at basic WP users who had something and now it's being taken away, yes it may only be a few pennies per month, but there are plenty of free alternatives and the benefits of owning a WP are now so small (Or negative) that having them go to Android and Google is now a reality.

MS have already made OneDrive without placeholders an almost useless product for me, for sharing photos I can use Flickr or the likes and I have just bought a large external network hard drive. Having to have one OneDrive policy on my desktop, a different one on my Surface Pro and again a different one on my HP Stream, just make it a farce.

I was so close to buying the Band 2 this month to complete my MS based system, but along with the current mess that is Skype (Honestly I have sat my wife down twice now to explain Skype and as soon as I say "On this device do this, but on here do this" she just says, "show me when it works"), OneDrive being an almost total write off and a very uncertain future for WP I am now very wary on spending any more with them (And I have spent heavily in the last couple of years). We have a family 365, three music passes, I have bought some films and TV, and then the hardware, Xbox's Ones, Surfaces other stuff and several phones (OK some of them say Nokia)

The biggest problem for me is the future, I still love my 1520 with 10581 on it, my desktop is up to 10576 and mostly it's looking good, but with some of the decisions made by MS and some of the reports on here, I am very much in doubt on what way MS is going and on that basis not sure I want to invest in a new WP next year, I really dislike the opposition, but MS with stuff like this are making it hard not to look at them, and if my phone is non Windows based, my other devices will follow.

Please MS stop throwing spokes in the wheel, its very frustrating, this decision is mainly going to hurt honest and decent WP customers with the knock on effect of seeding doubt in the minds of maybe larger spending customers.

I know the last couple of resets on WP weren't the current boards fault, but this is not the way to win hearts of minds.