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Microsoft adds paid storage tiers to SkyDrive cloud service

Company announces the rumored paid storage options for SkyDrive, its cloud storage service, and has rolled out previews of new SkyDrive apps for Windows and Mac OS X Lion.

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Mary Jo Foley
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Mary Jo Foley
Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 30 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). She also is the cohost of the "Windows Weekly" podcast on the TWiT network.
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As rumors have indicated for a while, Microsoft has added paid storage options to its SkyDrive cloud service.

Brand new SkyDrive users get 7GB of storage for free. Existing users (those with accounts as of April 22) continue to get up to 25 GB of storage for free if they opt to do so. After that, an additional 20GB costs $10 per year; an additional 50GB costs $25 per year; and an additional 100GB, $50 per year.

Microsoft

Microsoft also made available for download on April 23 a preview version of SkyDrive for Windows, a local version of its SkyDrive client. This is the first step the Softies are taking toward integrating SkyDrive with Live Mesh, the company's synchronization service that's similar to DropBox. The preview is available for Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

With the SkyDrive app for Windows, everything put in a SkyDrive folder on a Windows PC is automatically kept in sync between PCs, Macs and SkyDrive.com, according to the download site. Also on the feature list:

  • Ability to access SkyDrive directly from Windows Explorer -- photos, documents, and other files
  • Option to add new files to SkyDrive by dragging them to the SkyDrive folder
  • Ability to organize files and folders in SkyDrive, just like any other folder
  • Option to connect back to the PC if the user forgets to put something in SkyDrive

Microsoft officials have been working to turn SkyDrive into a full-fledged service, rather than just a Web site, for the past several months. The company's moves on this front have taken on an urgency with Google's competitor, Google Drive, finally materializing after years of rumors.

Microsoft also made available an updated version of its SkyDrive app for Windows Phone on April 22. There's also a new preview of SkyDrive for Mac OS X Lion available for download today, as well.

Update: Microsoft also updated the iPhone and iPad versions of SkyDrive today, as well. (Thanks for the info, @tomarbuthnot.) These updates support the new Retina Display, and add a couple other new features.

This story was originally posted as "Microsoft adds paid storage options to its SkyDrive cloud service" on ZDNet's All About Microsoft blog.