Microsoft Rebranding SkyDrive to OneDrive, Bringing New Experience

It’s been a long six months since Microsoft lost the right to use the name “SkyDrive” after losing a bitter court battle with UK broadcast company BSkyB, and many have been left wondering since then what’s to become of Microsoft’s consumer and business cloud storage solution and Dropbox competitor. Many had assumed that the company would fight back and appeal the court’s decision, and Microsoft itself had previously committed to doing just that – however it appears the tech giant has rethought a few things and decided that it would be best to go back to the drawing board and rebrand. Goodbye, SkyDrive – say hello to Microsoft OneDrive.

Microsoft today announced the “new” cloud storage system in a blog post on the new official OneDrive blog alongside a fun little YouTube video, which you can see here. While Microsoft isn’t talking about how the experience will differ from SkyDrive just yet, but Microsoft is hinting that this will be more than a simple name change – Microsoft claims that the new name is more in line with the new “vision” of the service, hinting that there are some significant changes to come. The company is promising that you’ll want to use OneDrive for “everything in your life.”

The announcement says that the company will be rolling out the new OneDrive soon, replacing all existing SkyDrive plans. So whether you’ve got a basic SkyDrive account or a SkyDrive for Business plan, there will be a OneDrive replacement.