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Microsoft Targets iCloud With 30GB of Free OneDrive Storage

Sign up for an account and activate the auto-upload feature for your camera roll to earn 30GB of free storage.

By Stephanie Mlot
September 22, 2014
Microsoft OneDrive Logo

Forget iCloud. Microsoft wants Apple fans to use OneDrive, and it's doubling the amount of free storage on iOS in an effort to entice them.

The announcement came Friday evening, as folks were still unboxing their iPhone 6 and 6 Plus phones, which come in 16GB, 64GB, or 128GB models, but no extra storage option. "We've been listening to the commentary about storage on the new iPhones … and we wanted to get you more storage right away," Douglas Pearce, OneDrive group program manager, wrote in a blog post.

Specifically, OneDrive users will get 30GB of free OneDrive storage: 15GB of base storage and another 15GB for photos pulled from your phone's camera roll.

It's not an iOS-specific offering, though. Microsoft also extended its promotion to include anyone who already uses the OneDrive camera roll on Windows Phone, Android, and the Windows desktop OS, as well as existing iPhone users who back up their photos to OneDrive.

The offer is available through the end of the month; without revealing a specific date, Pearce simply encouraged iOS users to "act fast" and download OneDrive for iOS.

Pearce said the deal is a perfect excuse to upgrade to iOS 8, especially for those who have avoided it because it requires 5GB of space. "This means you won't have to delete a bunch of photos or apps to make room for the upgrade," he said.

Apple's iCloud offers 5GB of free storage, with 20GB starting at $0.99 per month, going all the way up to 1TB for $20 per month.

Following a loss in its trademark case against the U.K.'s British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), Redmond was forced earlier this year to rebrand its SkyDrive cloud service to OneDrive.

In June, Microsoft announced plans to more than double users' free storage space, bumping OneDrive up from 7GB to 15GB—and now 30GB.

For more, see PCMag's review of Microsoft OneDrive and the slideshow above. Also check out our review of Apple's iOS 8.

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About Stephanie Mlot

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Stephanie Mlot

B.A. in Journalism & Public Relations with minor in Communications Media from Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP)

Reporter at The Frederick News-Post (2008-2012)

Reporter for PCMag and Geek.com (RIP) (2012-present)

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