Microsoft announced yesterday that they plan to downgrade their various OneDrive storage offerings.
Office 365 Home, Personal and University customers are now limited to 1 TB of OneDrive storage instead of unlimited storage. The 100GB and 200GB OneDrive plans are discontinued. They will be replaced by a 50GB plan for $1.99 per month in early 2016. Free storage will be reduced from 15GB to 5GB for all free users. The camera roll bonus of 15GB will be discontinued.
Microsoft's reasoning for the OneDrive storage offering downgrades: "A small number of users backed up numerous PCs and stored entire movie collections and DVR recordings. In some instances, this exceeded 75 TB per user or 14,000 times the average."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 04 2015, @09:39PM
(Score: 3, Insightful) by maxwell demon on Thursday November 05 2015, @12:28AM
Sure.
No, it isn't. "Unlimited" means "we do not put an arbitrary limit on it", not "we provide you to exceed the laws of physics". For example a truly unlimited data plan is one where you could max out your connection 24/7. Of course even when maxing out that connection, you'll only be able to transfer a finite amount of data. But the point is, that amount is given by the inherent limitations of your connection, not by an arbitrarily limit set by the provider.
It's just like "all you can eat". If I'm offered an "all you can eat", I'd expect that I'm allowed to eat as much as I can, not limited by whatever the restaurant owner considers reasonable.
Now it's absolutely OK not to offer unlimited. If you can't provide unlimited, don't offer unlimited. It's as simple as that. But if you do offer unlimited, don't complain about users using it as advertised.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @02:39AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @05:23AM
Every month, you are have an infinite quota of breathable air! You also have an unlimited supply of water (except if you're in CA). You can literally run ALL your taps 24/7 and you'll never run out of it. You won't get an infinite amount of water, but you will get an unlimited amount of water.
Remember kids: Unlimited != Infinite
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @06:59AM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @02:05PM
Then the water coming out of your tap will flow slower, and slower, and slower. But it will keep coming.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @03:45PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @06:26AM
Yes, the water company will see demand increasing more than they could handle and will use their increased profits to generate more supply. Microsoft offered free unlimited so they'd attract users from other companies and have the chance to convert them into paying customers. It was a calculated risk they specifically took. Sure, if they regret it they should stop offering unlimited storage for any new customers, but changing the terms on existing users should be considered fraud.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Thursday November 05 2015, @09:01AM
My hard disk. Yes, my hard disk has a finite capacity, but I'm free to use all available capacity. It's not as if when I start filling up ma hard disk to more than 50%, the hard disk manufacturer would come and tell me that I'm not allowed to store more. Now if the hard disk gets full, I'll of course not be able to write more data on it (unless I erase other data first). But that's not an arbitrary limit imposed by the hard disk manufacturer, but simply because there's no space left on the device.
TV broadcasting. If I want I can watch TV 24/7, and the broadcaster will not tell me that it's now time to stop watching TV.
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.