Skydrive users, go to Skydrive to upgrade your box to $25 GB

[N8ter]

there's still more free space than iCloud and drop box,plus it's more compatible with office and is much easier to share things. Watch the video on the front page? You'd know what this is all about if you did. Zune pass still offers more than the others $10/month for unlimited streaming,downloads and music videos.

iCloud isn't the same type of service that SkyDrive is. SkyDrive is an online locker. iCloud is first and foremost a backup solution. You can't store stuff on iCloud like a drive. That's not how it was designed. It was designed chiefly to hold app data and data for Apple Applications and services (iWords files, iCloud Mail, iTunes media, etc.) as well as backup apple devices. Completely different. iCloud can get away with a lower limit because they can safely assume no one will be uploading a 400MB 1080p video they just took with their iPhone to iCloud. Microsoft cannot make such an assumption with SkyDrive.

Apple has 32/64GB SKUs for all their mobile devices, so they don't really need a solution like this with iOS having WiFi synching and the fact that iCloud will propagate a ton of backed up data across all their form-factors, anyways... People who need more space will simply get a bigger iTouch/Phone/Pad since having space on your device is almost always superior to cloud storage due to connection issues and things like that.

Even then, when you use Live Mesh for backups/synching it's only 5GB so they're only on par with Apple there but Apple is a bit more elegant in how it's integrated into the OS and their apps (the way it propagates changes across devices in real time, etc.). Even PhotoStream has limitations on how long it will keep a file on there and how many files it will keep before it starts deleting the oldest ones first.

A 16 second 720p video I took with my HD7 is over 40MB. If the size baloons at a fairly consistent rate, it means 2.7min of footage from that camera = 400MB which is not a lot and it's over 5% of 7GB. Pictures from a 5MP camera at full resolution average over 1MB. Better cameras average better photos at higher quality and the files are generally heavier - especially at higher megapixel counts (8 or 12).

Google Drive is primarily for Docs. Google already has the infrastructure and services to offload other types of data to other services within the same Google Account and integrated decently thereof. Picasa/Google+, YouTube, Google Music, etc. so the fact that they only offer 5GB isn't much of an issue. Again, SkyDrive is different, and since Microsoft doesn't own such services they cannot make those types of assumptions.

The only services that have to really worry about how much space they give are those like SkyDrive, Box.net, and DropBox. There's a reason why Box ran promotions on Android and iOS to give people 50GB space and DropBox is giving away space in their referral promotion.

Additionally, Zune pass is not portable so it's not necessarily a huge incentive to come to WP7 now that they deleted the free 10 songs a month perk. People on other platforms can just bring their present streaming solutions (like Spotify) over with them, or stay on another platform and still continue using those. Zune Pass was huge when services like Spotify weren't in certain countries and they gave away music for free. I now I deactivated mine and won't ever go back without that perk since it's not portable and I can use Spotify on any platform I choose.

 

[N8ter]

If it were to be used as a music storage location how does Skydrive's 7GB stack up to the competition?

Not too good. Google Music is like a 100GB hard cap and over 20k tunes. Apple has iTunes match (nevermind you can get a 32/64GB iOS device which may delete the real need for this) and Amazon Cloud is $20/year for Unlimited Space for Music and 20GB for everything else or just 5GB if you go the free route so paying for both Amazon is a superior value offering if you're looking specifically at music lockering.

Plus, all three of those makes getting your music into the cloud pretty transparent. SkyDrive doesn't.

Maybe Microsoft will come up with a competing Zune Service for that in the future, though. The whole "access files from your PC elsewhere" doesn't work too well because many people with residentially internet connections do not have good upload speeds, especially those stuck with DSL or Wireless (Radio) internet connections so streaming over the net from your PC is a terrible experience there.

 

[cckgz4]

Done

 

[lumic]

there's still more free space than iCloud and drop box,plus it's more compatible with office and is much easier to share things. Watch the video on the front page? You'd know what this is all about if you did. Zune pass still offers more than the others $10/month for unlimited streaming,downloads and music videos.

SkyDrive: massive storage was the differentiator. 25GB vs 5GB is a huge deal, whereas 7 vs 5 isn't. DropBox shines because it is truly cross-platform and integrated into a wide array of apps. Services like iCloud excel through close integration with Apple's products. I don't see how Microsoft can win this space if it simply mimics iCloud, doesn't offer the diversity of DropBox and doesn't have a huge number to throw in front of people.

As others have pointed out, Apple and Google offer superior free music streaming to Microsoft, and I seriously doubt we're going to see mass-market adoption of paid services like Spotify in the near future. I'd take 25GB of anything rather than 5GB of anything + a large amount of songs, but replace that 25GB with 7GB? Nope.

If Microsoft thinks no one is using SkyDrive, it's because it isn't pushing for it hard enough in its current core products. Office should have SkyDrive upload front and centre (seems it will in v15). Windows should have deep, native integration with SkyDrive. So should Windows Phone, there shouldn't need to be a separate app.

Zune Pass: the songs you got to keep were the differentiator. Now, Zune Pass isn't anything too special compared to other services. The only reason why I'd get it over another service is because I have a Windows Phone (and Zune installed on my desktop). But I'm representative of little more than 1% of smartphone users, not good enough.

 

[cckgz4]

How is Zune not too special? Unless I'm that out of the loop, I don't know any other music services that let you "rent" their music without streaming it. Granted it doesn't play nice with devices outside of Windows Phone, it's great to use at home and is meant to use with it's branded devices.

 

[joemd60]

Worked for me, thanks.

 

[Rodolfo#WP]

How is Zune not too special? Unless I'm that out of the loop, I don't know any other music services that let you "rent" their music without streaming it. Granted it doesn't play nice with devices outside of Windows Phone, it's great to use at home and is meant to use with it's branded devices.

There is nothing in the business that can match the Zune Pass dowloading feature, in particular, at any price. A feature that tends to freak people is being able to BingListen to a song that is playing when you're out or visiting with family and friends, and downloading that song from the Marketplace in a minute, and especially the entire related album, in a few more.

Many users, though, have a library of stolen music, and they're hard to impress with most "competing" services. The free services are satisfactory because they merely complement their habit.

 

[N8ter]

How is Zune not too special? Unless I'm that out of the loop, I don't know any other music services that let you "rent" their music without streaming it. Granted it doesn't play nice with devices outside of Windows Phone, it's great to use at home and is meant to use with it's branded devices.

You can cache playlists and music offline with other services now, services that are cross platform. You can buy from Amazon and just have it sync in the background to your phone.

The biggest perk for Zune Pass was the 10 free songs and some streaming music videos will not make up for them ripping that part out.

Also using it with branded devices is find and all, but they make you double pay to use it on a XB360. I rather plug my iPod into the XB and use that instead of paying another $9.99 a month just to stream some music through my XB (can't even download them to the console - why do I have a 250GB hard drive they seriously think I buy that many games? ).

 

[gsquared]

I did upgrade back to the 25 Gb but really having 7 Gb would have been no big deal. I seriously doubt I'll ever chew-up 7 Gb worth of data. I'm from the old school where / when it was necessary to practice data management.

My first PC had, at the time, a wopping 40 Mb hard drive.

 

[AngryNil]

The biggest perk for Zune Pass was the 10 free songs and some streaming music videos will not make up for them ripping that part out.

This. Sure, you may never cancel your subscription in actual usage. But the free songs were a huge advantage at point of sale, since purchasing the songs individually would already match the monthly fee. I actually perceived it as free streaming for purchasing some songs.

 

[cckgz4]

You can cache playlists and music offline with other services now, services that are cross platform. You can buy from Amazon and just have it sync in the background to your phone.

The biggest perk for Zune Pass was the 10 free songs and some streaming music videos will not make up for them ripping that part out.

Also using it with branded devices is find and all, but they make you double pay to use it on a XB360. I rather plug my iPod into the XB and use that instead of paying another $9.99 a month just to stream some music through my XB (can't even download them to the console - why do I have a 250GB hard drive they seriously think I buy that many games? ).

O/T but I REALLY hate Rhapsody took away the "cache" option. I don't see it on my Android anymore

 

[N8ter]

Was there last I checked, but I don't even use any streaming services anymore - at all. I've gone back to just buying what I want when I need it, from iTunes since I have an iPod already (that I use more than my phone now, with free Tethering ) and don't want to install the Amazon Downloader on my PC.

I've had Zune corrupt music files I bought (especially from the phone) and I couldn't redownload them without paying again. The risk is no longer worth it since it "got me" multiple times with that.

 

[jalb]

Was there last I checked, but I don't even use any streaming services anymore - at all. I've gone back to just buying what I want when I need it, from iTunes since I have an iPod already (that I use more than my phone now, with free Tethering ) and don't want to install the Amazon Downloader on my PC.

I've had Zune corrupt music files I bought (especially from the phone) and I couldn't redownload them without paying again. The risk is no longer worth it since it "got me" multiple times with that.

Ugh, I paid for the same CD twice, in the act of finding out that Zune will not keep track of your purchases and let you re-download music. Considering that it only happened due to a sync gone bad, I was livid and it turned me off from the service pretty much for good.

Oh well, back to CD's for me - buying direct from the artists benefits them more anyway.

 

[socialcarpet]

Bumping this so more people will see it.

 

[HerronScott]

Worked here for my families 3 accounts!

Scott