When Microsoft announced earlier this week
that it would no longer be handing out unlimited cloud storage to
Office 365 subscribers via its OneDrive service, those affected were
obviously not enthused. Users who were previously unbounded by the
all-you-can-eat buffet that was endless cloud storage will soon be
limited to a less satisfying 1TB. Those latching on to the 100 and 200GB
plans will see reduction to a dismal 50GB at the same monthly cost.
Even free users will be affected, by a reduction from 15GB to a meager
5GB of complimentary storage. And that all goes without mentioning the
15GB camera roll feature, which is to be axed altogether.
You may not, at first glance,
understand why this is frustrating. So we were duped — a company changed
its mind a year later because it was losing money — what else is new?
But that’s not the whole story. No, unlimited storage was a backhanded gift
to Microsoft’s loyal customers a little less than a year ago. Before
that, the storage plans were exactly as they are now, limited. Microsoft
is flip-flopping more than a career politician, but why? To put a dent
in Google’s market share, of course!
A shot in the dark at Google Drive
Instead of focusing on improving
the overall OneDrive experience for its loyal customers, Microsoft was
more concerned with stealing customers Google, its main rival in cloud
storage, despite the inevitable repercussions. Microsoft explicitly
called it a “productivity war,” one that would — if Microsoft had its
way — leave Google bleeding and Microsoft drowning in revenue.
Unfortunately, however, as the company soon realized, it was not
prepared for the fight ahead.
However, considering the average Office 365 subscriber only used about 5.5GB of their designated unlimited OneDrive storage, those uploading their colossal unauthorized film catalogs were clearly in the minority.
Microsoft didn’t want to afford unlimited storage
In an official statement on the OneDrive blog,
Redmond claimed it was compromising on “extreme backup scenarios” in
order to refocus on collaborative productivity solutions. First of all,
that’s not true. Secondly, it’s a cop-out to be expected from a company
preemptively trying to save its own hide. Like with any storage
solution, OneDrive’s purpose should be versatile. It shouldn’t be
reliant on one person’s specific needs. It can be collaborative and
capacious at the same time.
A few rogue users uploading a
ton of data doesn’t call for measures as drastic as omitting the
unlimited tier altogether. The term unlimited implies that
there are, in fact, no limits, no bounds. Of course a few people are
going to take advantage of that. Microsoft’s sales projections should
have taken that into account before increasing its storage options last year.
Microsoft isn’t some
unsuspecting San Francisco start-up. It’s a multi-billion dollar
corporation, assuredly with a number of highly qualified market research
specialists. As such, it should know that going back on its word could
inflict more damage on the company than losing a couple thousand dollars
from a few Internet file hoarders.
Smaller companies are doing unlimited — so Microsoft can too
Ever heard of CrashPlan or
BackBlaze? Kudos to you if you have. Admittedly, I’ve been living under a
rock, so when I stumbled across these handy services, I was astonished.
For $5 a month, you can get unlimited cloud storage from either of
these companies. They’re not shying away from productivity either,
making use of technological clichés like “When the world is your office,
CrashPlan is your personal backup assistant.”
Cliché, but effective.
Despite securing coverage from major news outlets such as WSJ, NBC,
etc., these companies are microscopic compared to Microsoft. Yet they
can somehow afford to hand out unlimited storage at an even lower cost
to their customers.
Obviously, they’re going to
account for the select few who’ll back up every season of their favorite
HBO programs, even if that equates to a few terabytes’ worth. But a
cloud storage company proficient in sales is going to ignore the
minority — no matter how rampant — in favor of the dominating customer
base. Those who ignore the service for all but uploading a few
gigabytes’ worth in documents. Those who help the company make a profit.
Borrowing Google’s market share
If nothing else is learned from
all of this, Microsoft might finally discover that precautionary
measures should be taken before launching monumental service changes.
Instead of disregarding the consequences in favor of some healthy
corporate competition, perhaps Redmond should take a step back at say,
“Hey, if we advertise something as being unlimited, maybe we
shouldn’t completely change the one thing people liked about our
service just because it increases our operation expenses.”
Competition is good. If
Microsoft wants to take down Google Drive, I say go for it. But don’t
toy with your customers along the way. That’s not a permanent solution
in the long-term goal of stealing market share. In fact, Microsoft
didn’t steal Google’s market share at all. It simply borrowed it
and swiftly decided to give it back. Unless, for some odd reason, you
have a strong preference to use Microsoft Word over Google Docs, there’s
little incentive to be a OneDrive subscriber anymore.
Microsoft has made a lot of progress lately. Windows 10 is great. The Surface Book is flying off store shelves.
But perhaps its greatest theme, as of late, has been a supposed focus
on a “cloud-first” future. That might be true if you’re an enterprise
customer seeking cloud storage for a web platform, or for your thousands
of employees. If you’re an individual, though, it seems Microsoft
doesn’t care to be cloud-first at all.
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