UPDATED 07:42 EDT / AUGUST 22 2013

Gotcha! These 3 Cloud Services Lure You In with Free Storage

Dropbox, a cloud storage provider, has revealed another cool way users can grab 1GB of additional space for free. The only requirement for users to take advantage of this offer is to link your Mailbox account with Dropbox. To get the extra 1GB of additional free storage space, install Mailbox’s iOS app, go to the Settings menu, tap on “Dropbox”, add/or choose your account information, and boom. You now immediately have 1GB more free storage space to store photos, files, music, and movies.

Mailbox is currently iOS only, but they are said to be working on an Android version of the app. And if you already have Mailbox and have already connected Dropbox, simply unlink Dropbox in the Mailbox app and then reconnect again and you’ll pick up the 1GB. Users could potentially accrue up to 21GB of free storage space (accounting for all the simple tasks, linking to social accounts, referrals, and so on). I myself have collected 5.88GB of free space.

Giving away free storage as a marketing ploy is by no means anything new in the storage space. The battle that is happening right now in the consumer cloud is pitting heavyweight vs heavyweight in a fierce battle for users…in hopes to converting them to paid subscribers. Here is a list of some other companies that have used giving away free levels of storage in an attempt to get you as a user:

3 Cloud Services that Lure You In with Free Storage

 

  • Google

At Google I/O back in May, the search engine giant announced that they were upgrading their free storage offering from 5GB to 15GB. That includes everything Google: Google+, Drive, and Gmail, too.

The big appeal for free storage at the consumer level is that these individual end users will employ Google services at work.  Backdoor entry to the enterprise, where Google has significantly smaller market share than Microsoft as far as software goes, and smaller market share than Apple on the device side (with smartphones and tablets).

Google could eventually monetize the consumer directly too.

  • Yahoo

The same day that Yahoo announced its acquisition of Tumblr, it also announced a significant update to Flickr. All free accounts get 1 terabyte of free storage. While the 1TB of free storage is for photos only, the marketing ploy is not any less effective. Images are the way into the consumers phone, wallet and interest level right now.

Is Yahoo positioning itself to eventually jump into the cloud storage wars against Amazon S3, Windows Azure, Google Cloud and the likes? Or will Yahoo stick to a consumer-centric model that’s streamlined and device-agnostic? Either way, Yahoo is positioning itself a pretty stealth Trojan horse.

  • Dropbox

The leader in the consumer cloud market is seeing more and more competition and from both levels: the big boys (Google, Apple, Microsoft, Yahoo) and the start-ups (Bitcasa, Box, SugarSync). What Dropbox starts with in 2GB of free storage, now through all of the other ways as previously mentioned, you can obtain as much as 21GB of free storage space.

Of its reported 100+ million users, Dropbox is a great option if ease of use and Facebook group integration is important to you. However, it is not for people pushing big files up and down all day.

How does Dropbox transition to more of an enterprise play with its limiting max storage size and expensive pricing? Of all three examples, Dropbox has done the best acquisition of free users through marketing ploys, hands down. They’re going to need that marketing prowess to continue moving forward.


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