As many already know, Microsoft’s SkyDrive is the company’s cloud-based storage service. We use it on our Windows Phone to back-up photos, access documents and other files we keep in the cloud.
Today, Microsoft has announced that they are retiring the SkyDrive branding for this cloud storage and renaming things OneDrive. The thinking behind the name is that while you have many devices in your life, you only want one place to store your documents, images, videos and other files.
Microsoft announced back in July of the impending name change due to litigation against them by British Sky Broadcasting Group (BSkyB), who successfully claimed that SkyDrive infringed on the “Sky” trademark.
Current SkyDrive and SkyDrive Pro customers will not see any interruptions in service as the name change begins to roll out. No date was given as to when the transition will begin other than “expect to be able to experience the new OneDrive soon”.
As we learn more about this change, we’ll surely pass it on.
Source: Onedrive.com; Thanks, everyone, for the tips!
Reader comments
Microsoft drops SkyDrive name, announces OneDrive instead
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Cue the next law suits: http://techgeek.com.au/2014/01/28/microsoft-company-using-onedrive-name/
And like somebody mentioned before: Ubuntu One <https://one.ubuntu.com/> ...
And if we are voting, I liked SkyDrive.
7 GB storage SkyDrive changes his name into One Drive. Defines the name it will reach all over the internet. http://www.gotowebsites.info/
I still think Aetheric Data Repository is the best choice for Microsoft... I tried emailing them, but they never responded. :(
MS MUST BRING FILE FETCHING BACK TO SKYDRIVE/ONEDRIVE on windows 8.1. Why can i access files on all computers running windows 7 via the skydrive website, but when i try to fetch files from a 8.1 pc, im SOL. horribe, absolutely horrible
OneDrive TwoDrive ThreeDrive Rock
OneOffice?
OneMail?
OneSearch?
I think they should change Bing Maps to OneDirection...............
OneDrive to rule them all... :P
SkyDrive is much better, but OneDrive doesn't sound too bad.
I can live with the new name (and it ties in with XBox One).
Oh well i can't download any songs mp3 files to my phone hope they add this.
"One" as in OneNote .What's next ? OneBox?
Will I be able to finally install the desktop app on my freaking PC ? Is that included in the announced improvements?
I see there are a lot of different feelings about the name change. Some stronger then others! Quite frankly i do not care what they call it! I have ICloud-Google drive and of course "ONEDRIVE" AKA: SkyDrive! and by far "ONEDRIVE" AKA: SkyDrive! Works the best! It updates faster and is very easy to use on all my devices!
That is the only thing I care about! I think some how Microsoft will find away to advertise it and sell it!
The best part will be how it works!! Not the cool name!!
So, companies have to change their products name because it contains a word some other company is using? I'd understand if it was the whole name or some iBullsh*t, but only "Sky"? Seriously?
Don't like the new name. Makes it sound like it's supposed to promote the XBox One.
Lets see if the Portuguese company called exactly"onedrive" doesn't sue Microsoft also.
Why can't they just keep SkyDrive name. One drive sounds dumb.
I like it. Way better name than SkyDrive.
Next.... OneMail for Outlook. Couldn't get more creative than that :P
Ha gaayeee
Trademark system is f'ed up.
One day, corporations all over the world will have rights to everything under the sun. No one will be able to use common words in their names anymore.
I was already pissed enough with the entire King.com - Candy Crush Saga thing.
Doesn't matter that Sky is a big corporation and whatnot (it also is in Brazil). No company should be allowed to sue another because it used "sky" in a product name. Nor apple or any other common word. No company should be allowed to trademark the word "sky". Trademarks should be restricted to unique words that are not on the dictionary.
Want to trademark your company name? Don't f*cking use a common word in your name.
Of course, that would be the rational thing to do. Alas, corporations tramples rationality and are able to get off with just about anything out there.
Let's just see if Microsoft doesn't get a lawsuit once again for using "One".
Seriously, judicial system should have better things to do with their time other than having to deal with crap like that.
For those wondering, of course Microsoft fought back to try to keep the name. Can you imagine how much they'll have to spend to change it? And if it was just a matter of licensing the name, they would have settled out of court because it'd be far cheaper.
Problem is Sky is a huge corporation, they either didn't want to sell a license or charged some absurd sum that wouldn't be worth it.
Regardless, the whole thing is f*cked up. This is why we have people living off of trademark and copyright trolling, trying to abuse the system to cash up money from others, and then lots of time and money being diverted to fruitless battles that sounds something like kids' fight or something. Time and money that could've been well spend in R&D or PR.
Microsoft will have to change the name again bcz One is used by One republic... wtf!
And used also by HTC, bad branding strategy.
I liked 'SkyDrive' ... OneDrive... not that cool :( f u 'sky' :/
Ditto
I just got another 20gb free storage from MS.A "Windows Bonus"...did anybody else get this? This 20 gigs is on top of the 20 gigs we got a month or so ago. I now have over 50 gigs. :)
That's perfect! Both the new name and that commercial! Great job Microsoft, you did well. :)
WTF is it with MS and renaming things?! I feel like they rebrand things every odd week...
This makes sense given their are going under "one" branding, or rather trying to :p.
When OneDrive arrives, can I please have back my connectivity to the files on my Windows 8.1 PC?
Sorry Microsoft but you're about to be sued again by BskyB as they have a channel called Sky1 (yes its an numerical one but its still has one in it) and they may also team up with the BBC as they've got a channel called BBC One. So you still can't use the word One.
FYI - copied from a comment above...
They also have many products with the Sky prefix, Sky TV, Sky Broadband, Sky Mobile, Sky Go, Sky News, Sky Bet, Sky Poker, all of their channels are Sky 1, Sky Arts, Sky Movies, Sky Sports. It is entirely plausible that consumers would confuse a product called Sky Drive with a blue logo (same as sky) with one of their services, especially as Sky do offer online storage with their broadband packages.
OneDrive Is ok, but it isn't just about the name. We need secure place for our data. It's a long way I think... :(
So if my name is Peter and everyone knows me as Peter, I'll call myself Larry. I think I get it.
Your name is Alex, feeling confused lol.
I think Skydrive was a better name.
Not bad ...since every thing ms is becoming one (x box one , one note and so on)
They should've just renamed it "Microsoft SkyDrive" like they did with Excel, then everyone could've still called it SkyDrive. I like SkyDrive much better than OneDrive, and I'm really disappointed that Microsoft gave up so easily.
I really don't care, unless they speed the damn SlowDrive up.
I wonder if it's faster in the US, but it is incredibly slow in Germany.
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Not sure how but I have 47 gb of free storage lol
I still think "One" should be the suffix and not the prefix
I love the new name. Makes perfect sense!
Very lame about the name change because one company thinks it has full rights to the word "Sky." -_-
I thought it was a new boy band. LOL
windows 9 == Windows One
DriveOne sounds better than OneDrive.. Isn't it??
They should name it "Microsoft Internet Storage Manager 2014" nobody will sue them for this name ;)
Yeah
And what a thunderclap was it to me!
Know this for weeks
My understanding was that Sky was getting tech support calls for SkyDrive. Pretty hard to argue that there is no brand confusion. Also, if Microsoft argued that Sky is a noun and shouldn't be trademarked, the same could be said for Windows. I think they had no choice.
I'm still gonna call it SkyDrive. The same way I still call Marlboro Blues Marlboro Milds.
Ooh I like it! Now we just need a better name for the "Modern" design language...
OneDrive to store it all, OneDrive to find it, OneDrive to unite them all and in the cloud you hide it.
Already can, if u have enough storage space. MS charges by the year, not by the month - a killer deal. I just set my default music folder in Libraries to my OneDrive Music folder.
The new name sounds good to me. :)
I do like the idea of the new name, I just have to get used to it. :P
This is great but when will we be anle to store our music on Onedrive?
OneDrive! Nice choice of name, rolls off the tongue just as well as SkyDrive.
I like the name. It makes a lot of sense. One Microsoft.
BSkyB should sue Mazda and Nissan too because of SKYactiv and SKYline and other companies that owning "Sky" named brand too LOL ROTFL #offtopic
I like it!
OneNote and now One Drive. Xbox Drive would have been better for it would have gone with Xbox Music, Xbox Movies, and Xbox Games.
Like many... I also suggested the name OneDrive.
Then Canonical sues because of Ubuntu One cloud storage
Onedrive, because we want one place to keep all our files for multiple devices? Really? I thought Skydrive was for saving copies as a backup, not to be the only version of your pics/media/files. This 'no need to backup, it's in the cloud' idea sounds shaky to me. It should be Twodrive. Never rely on one copy of important files, whatever Microsoft suggest. It just isn't safe.
Why still using the "drive" word? It's from the past. They should use the word cloud or storage...
People still use the term harddrive all the time, which is synonymous with storage. Hence OneDrive. It's a good name, IMO.
Does this community get credit from Microsoft for the excellent new name? Specifically, mmeyers750 who was the first to bring forth the suggestion in the comments of the 7/31 WPCentral article on the requirement to change. I love it and raise a toast to mmeyer750. I offered up OneScreen which I'm still fond of, but OneDrive is great and works with Microsoft's 3 screens and a cloud vision. Now, it will be 3 screens and OneDrive - genius!
One Microsoft, OneDrive, XboxOne, OneNote. BREAKING: Micosoft will Drop Lumia name and instead call their WP lineup "One" -> Microsoft One 930 :P
I think Sky Drive is still better than One Drive
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I am copying that ONEDRIVE music onto my phone... that will be my ringtone for few days :)
WHAT DID I SAY?! I guessed that name months ago xD
Well at least its a better name then what i thought it was going to be, which was "CloudDrive"
Wonder if bskyb thought about going after Skype as well
This whole "cloud" thing is annoying imo, its the frickin internet not the cloud
How about some context, like how and why they were forced to change the name for trademark reasons?
Copy and pasted from a comment above;
They also have many many products with the Sky prefix, Sky TV, Sky Broadband, Sky Mobile, Sky Go, Sky News, Sky Bet, Sky Poker, all of their channels are Sky 1, Sky Arts, Sky Movies, Sky Sports. It is entirely plausible that consumers would confuse a product called Sky Drive with a blue logo (same as sky) with one of their services, especially as Sky do offer online storage with their broadband packages.
Right, thanks. I mean, I understand all that, I'm just saying the article could at least mention a bit of that.
I think that SkyDrive is the best , who agrees with me? I mean the service it self not the name
Next... ¿Windows One? ¿One O.S.? ¿One Phone?
MUCH better name. Thanks, Sky, for threatening to sue them!
I know why the name change is happening (being forced, but what I don't get is that SkyDrive has been around for about 7 years. So why are they being sued for it, and being forced to change the name now?
Whatever the reason, it better be a good one given that bskyb pissed away a lot of shareholders' money on legal fees in order to win this. Would be funny to see this come back to bite them if they just did it out of spite.
I was expecting them to go for LiveDrive, but OneDrive does make sense.
Well, now we know what the Windows 8.1 update is going to be: SkyDrive renamed.
Update One.
Come on!~"The thinking behind the name is that while you have many devices in your life, you only want one place to store your documents, images, videos and other files." What a pile of PR bs! They had to change the name because Sky TV filed a suit and they don't want to deal with those sky tv idiots for such a minor thing. MS is smart enough not to engage in those patent wars until they have to, Sky TV is just playing stupid and wanted to cash MS. Just wait untill they file a suit for SKYpe.
I thought Rudy Hyun had the lockdown on all things numbers?
+6
Good old Microsoft, providing PR spin when the reality is they were forced to change the Skydrive name by Sky TV!
I'm not sure I like 'OneDrive'. SkyDrive just works...perhaps MS should have paid up and bought the name rights from Sky on this particular product. It's not like Sky TV are going to release a cloud based backup system.
MS is such a pushover. Wtf. First Metro now SkyDrive. What's next? Internet Explorer? Surface? Jesus Christ.
yea im getting sick of how easily they keep losing fights like this, skydrive sounds a lot nicer, not to mention "modern" isnt even a proper name for their METRO user interace
I called this months ago.
Lucky One.
Interesting, I don't mind, but what's the reason for this? Would this name attract more users?
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Legal. Sky TV from the UK sued and won. Last year sometime...
Call it what they want. Outlook and One Drive is way better than gmail/google drive.
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Onelook (formerly known as Outlook).
Is it Blue Steel?
6Drive
LMAO!
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I Laughed out loud...
xD
+One :-D
How bout you increase the 7gig limit to 20gig along with the name change. Currently its 2drives for me, SkyDrive and my PC since SkyDrive maxed out
nice name i do like it
And thanks God, it's not named as BingDrive. I don't know. Bing is somehow odd. Xbox search is much better
Which god? Zeus? Ra?
Allah is my God:)
What about Ganesha - that guy has an elephant head! Or that goddess with lots of arms - she'd be great in a fight :P The Norse gods are great too... ahh so many gods to choose from!
Moslem surely only have one God;)
gods are like superheroes... you just have to pick one who'd be good in an imaginary fight ;)
Lakum dinukum waliyadin. For you, your believing. For me, my believing. Thanks!!!
I don't believe in any gods... I am just joking with you :)
One drive to rule them all
and in the clouds bind them!
+One. Guess I won't make that comment now.
I'm surprised that MS accepted the ruling in favour of BSkyB without any appeal. What with the recent ruling that the word Candy could be trademarked (in spite of the existence of an established company called Candy) I do wonder about how judges come to such decisions.
Will Skype be forced to become Onepe?
Onepe! LOL!
Haha, I like this. The elephant goes "Onepe!".
Eh, kinda.
I think the next windows phone version would be WP One.
[Lame-pun newscaster voice] That would be, "one," way to move away from the Lumia brand.
Onedrive for all the data in your life :)
Sure....that'll work. ;-)
I like it!
Awful choice. Luckily it won't last long since there's already a "OneDrive" in the market.
And I keep thinking MS has a very crappy legal team if they didn't win the trial over the noun "Sky".
mmmm, like the noun Windows lol
In future news, sesame street sues MS over use of the number one.
One! OneDrive.. Ha-ha-ha-haaaaa!
+One
Hopefully this means skygo can come out on windows phone and sky can connect to the xbox one in the uk now?
This is so silly! I hate it...You shouldn't be able to trademark normal words like Sky or Metro... And it only happens to MS
It is. Legally you CAN'T trademark nouns. Only compositions. So unless BskyB had trademarked the name "SkyDrive", MS shouldn't have lost the trial.
Which means MS legal team sucks.
Or they wanted to keep in News International's good books.
Normal words like Windows.....
I like the new name and MS ads have been improving at a rapid pace. I like the direction this company is moving into.
I still prefer my idea MiDrive instead of OneDrive but this may be one piece of their new vision. I'm very interested to see this one play out... Keep it going MS.
First was Xbox, then SkyDrive... Windows 9 will be Windows One, the full integration :)
It will always be SkyDrive to me!
There is always one Brandon. See what I did there? ;)
Well I bet this makes the Xbox One happy.
OneNote. Microsoft One vision. Xbox One
I like Onedrive.
I like it!
Xbox One. OneDrive. I am going to start saying Internet Explorer One One instead of Eleven. ;)
I still like my idea of calling it "Avenue" as it fits the metro theme and suits its purpose.. i will live with OneDrive, its a good 2nd choice :P
Hmm...One OS next, maybe? ;) makes one think...oh look! I made a pun.
Why replace? Skydriver is good name than onedriver is mean one hard driver?
They were forced to change the name.
Sooooooo... you just scrolled past ALL the other comments straight to the bottom to post this question? Dude... seriously...
Ooooooor he/she used the Windows Phone app to comment, where no scrolling is required.
Someone learned one 3D effect and went nuts, LOL.
I feel like you guys should probably at least mention why the name change is taking place :P It's not just because they felt like giving away the bit of brand recognition they'd built up :P
Name works.
They use one just like ubuntuOne
Just like OneNote...
We knew it was coming but meh. Maybe now though I'll get that 20gb free year of 'OneDrive' storage they couldn't be a**** to offer me back in December
No, they will offer OneGB. lol
I love the name Skydrive, but Onedrive sounds strange .... Probably i must get used to it ...
They will be sued again.
Look here http://www.one-drive.com/ and http://www.one.com/en/cloud-drive
I'm sure they did their research to avoid a repeat. They obviously bought the rights to the name.
Not just them: http://techgeek.com.au/2014/01/28/microsoft-company-using-onedrive-name/
Also Ubuntu OneDrive anybody? LOL
There's too many things with One in the name.
We should all call it One SkyDrive just to piss off BSkyB.
I will miss SkyDrive. Such a clever and simple name.
+1
i really don't care how they name it . It is still awesome
Sounds good to me. Good marketing. One phone one cloud..
Adding One to the front of your product name is almost as annoying as adding an "i"
I love it!! I was just praying they didn't come with a crazy name....
And here I thought Skydrive was the best sounding name of any cloud service...
Next, it will be OnePhone instead of Windows Phone :)
Im sure HTC will have something to say about that.
+520!
Just a biritish tv distributor can destroy this beauty name; they sue for sky and judge says yes this name is for them fair-enough judge LoL
Doh!!! It's not a British airline! It's Sky... the satellite & news media company!!!
Yes, FredBloggs007 correct it, just confused it with something else; thanks for your feedback ;)
No probs
Its a nice name, decent I must say. I remember sometime back reading an article here about a case wherein the court ordered that Microsoft change the name SkyDrive. So finally the change has arrived.
one place for your music?
OneDrive is trending worldwide :)
Not bad
Could have changed logo too..
I like the logo and it keeps some familiarity from SkyDrive so people don't think it is a completely new service. I will probably still refer to it as SkyDrive!
Yeah, me too - the way I still refer to the Modern UI as Metro.
I would mention why they didnt have a choice so people dont think they just changed there mind.
+1, MS is bad at markting 90% of time when whey should have done better.
There were sued by Sky in the UK, hence the name change
Exactly. But this important bit of information is nowhere to be found in the article.
Yes it is
It is now; they updated it.
Not bad. May not be as good as SkyDrive, but its good enough and the name fits in with Xbox one.
I`d say it`s got more to do with the One Microsoft vision rather..
And its like OneNote too.
This seems true!
OneNote, OneDrive.
OneWord.
OneUpdate. Where's my L925 TMO black update lmao. Sheesh TMO come on! Blue will be out by the time I get it. *sigh*
OneExcel, OnePoint, or maybe just OneOffice! Lol! JK!
What about Ubuntu One
I don't hate the name. It'll be rolling off the tongue naturally soon enough. "yeah I just saved the doc to onedrive"
they shud release Nokia Lumia 1100 and Lumia 3310.. will sell like hot cakes cause of d nostalgia value and fame!
Certainly. But they will never be what they used to be!
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