In the past many have questioned Microsoft’s naming process for their software, apps and services.
As my friend Kip Kniskern covers at Liveside this morning, what we have known as SkyDrive most recently was not how it all began for the current cloud storage service.
However, when Microsoft renamed the service to SkyDrive it made a lot of sense and was widely accepted and understood.
Those two words alongside an image of a cloud let you know immediately that it was a service that stored your files out there in the cloud.
Then about six months ago a challenge came to the use of the term Sky in the naming of the service and ultimately Microsoft and Sky Broadcasting in the UK arrived at an agreement that would allow Microsoft to continue to use the name as it prepared to transition the service to a new moniker.
However, it meant the end of SkyDrive name as we know it.
That brings us to the unexpected announcement earlier today that Microsoft would rebrand the cloud storage service to OneDrive.
The response has been overwhelmingly positive on social media channels that I keep an eye on.
Many immediately made the connection to Microsoft’s new focus on being One Microsoft and their new tag line of “One device for everything in your life”.
Of course, it also helps that one of your biggest hardware launches in many years is named Xbox One.
The concept of OneDrive to store everything makes sense and the unique graphic they used to show this concept connects all screen sizes from phones to large screens your Xbox One may be hooked up to.
OneDrive is no longer about just storing your files in the cloud and having them available on all your various screens on demand but the reality of that line between your local drive and your cloud storage being blurred just as it should be. It is OnePlace to have all of your files.
If you read the OneDrive Preview site you will have seen this tantalizing phrase:
OneDrive is everything you love about SkyDrive and more.
During several discussions on Twitter after the announcement here are the consensus more items we came up with:
- Shared Folder and Items available in app or in OS integration
- Notifications for content changes
- Increased storage from 7GB to 25GB per account (ok this one might be a pipe dream but still)
I wonder where they will surprise us as the new OneDrive comes online?
By the way, I suspect these updates will make their appearance in Windows 8.1, which already has SkyDrive..ummm…OneDrive integrated in the OS, with the Windows 8.1 Update 1 which is due in March based on current reports/rumors.
Ultimately, I think Microsoft got this one right and in this day and age it is nice to get a win every once in a while.
