Microsoft touts cloud statistics following Apple’s iCloud announcement

By Tom Warren, on 7th Jun 11 6:19 pm with 76 Comments

Microsoft supplied a number of cloud statistics on Tuesday, following Apple’s iCloud announcements.

The software giant revealed some key SkyDrive, Hotmail and Xbox statistics following Apple’s recent iCloud announcement. “We know the focus of the industry’s attention is currently on the cloud,” admitted a Microsoft spokesperson, who shared the statistics with WinRumors. “It’s come to define the idea of accessing your stuff from anywhere.” Microsoft says this is an area that Windows Live has been investing in for “over a decade”, serving over 500 million customers with Xbox LIVE, SkyDrive, Hotmail and Messenger.

Microsoft’s statistics follow the introduction of Apple’s iCloud service on Monday. Apple claims its new iCloud service is “the cloud the way it should be: automatic and effortless.” Apple has integrated iCloud into several iOS applications and will ship the enhancements as part of its new iOS 5 operating system. iCloud will store content and make it accessible to iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac or PC devices. Apple is providing 5GB of free storage, purchased music, apps, photos and books don’t count against the free storage.

SkyDrive – Since 2007, has been the one place to access your docs, photos and more from anywhere – for free.

  • SkyDrive has over 100M users around the world
  • With over 2.2 Petabytes of data stored across all file types, including 250M documents
  • Synced across over 5M connected devices using Windows Live Mesh

Hotmail – Since 1996, Hotmail remains the most efficient inbox for busy people.

  • Available across devices syncing mail, calendar and contacts
  • 6.5 M cloud-based slideshows stored on SkyDrive
  • Hotmail served over 200M Active Views in April 2011

Xbox – All of the entertainment you want. With people you care about. Made easy

  • Launched in 2002 with over 30M Subscribers across 35 countries
  • 40% of Xbox activity is non-game (movies, etc.)
  • 30 hours of video consumption per month per Xbox
  • Guest

    They’re right about “automatic and effortless”. Once again they’ve figured out how to take something everyone else has been doing and improve it in an important way.

    • Bob

      Last time I checked, my photos don’t erase themselves on SkyDrive like iCloud does after 30 days. Good luck with your phone bill after downloading files you didn’t even want synced.

    • George-king

      Again, SkyDrive and Mesh are about as effortless as one can get.

  • http://twitter.com/efjay01 Ef Jay

    This is pointless. Whats the point of all these statistics when the functionality is not there? See how they make a passing mention of Live Mesh, which has the capability to do the data syncing apple is now crowing about. Back in the initial beta we practically begged MS to make more of this service and expand it to all of the Skydrive storage allocation, but they didnt listen. Now they have to make meaningless press releases that will be ignored by the apple-adoring press and mainstream press alike. There was even a Windows Mobile live mesh client that was left lacking in features as well. Where is that on WP7? Another missed opportunity by Microsoft.

  • http://twitter.com/efjay01 Ef Jay

    This is pointless. Whats the point of all these statistics when the functionality is not there? See how they make a passing mention of Live Mesh, which has the capability to do the data syncing apple is now crowing about. Back in the initial beta we practically begged MS to make more of this service and expand it to all of the Skydrive storage allocation, but they didnt listen. Now they have to make meaningless press releases that will be ignored by the apple-adoring press and mainstream press alike. There was even a Windows Mobile live mesh client that was left lacking in features as well. Where is that on WP7? Another missed opportunity by Microsoft.

    • Guest

      Because a bunch of people at MS and specifically the Live team got embarassed yesterday. And we’re nearing year end for MS, which is when bonuses get handed out. The last thing they want to admit is they fucked up and got blown away by Apple yet again. So instead they’re in damage contol mode. In dcm at MS, the easiest and most expedient response is the “PR fluff piece” where you cite whatever meaningless statistics you can to show you’re winning even though you’re really losing.

  • http://twitter.com/emalamisura Eric Malamisura

    Problem with SkyDrive is that its just absolutely awful to use which makes it completely worthless!!  It doesn’t automatically sync, it doesn’t have mobile versions, you can’t mount it as a drive in Windows, it doesn’t support versioning (like dropbox).  As for Hotmail, are you serious Microsoft, have you ever used Hotmail?  It is a plethora of spam, after spam, after spam, and it is just insanely loaded with Advertsing that just annoys the crap outta you…No thanks!

    • http://profiles.google.com/matthew.weihl Matthew Weihl

      You can add it as a drive in Windows using WebDav. It’s like a secret backdoor technique though (and buggy as well).

    • Guest

      I think that qualifies as not user friendly.

    • http://profiles.google.com/matthew.weihl Matthew Weihl

      Exactly. I do believe Wave 5 will fix that however (along with Win8).

    • John

      Skydrive can sync with mesh and you can mount it like a drive using and Office 2010 app.

    • Guest

      So:

      MS: Customer must know about and set up Skydrive. Know about and set up Mesh. Know about and set up some hack to mount the drive.

      Apple: iCloud. Done.

      Gee, wonder who wins?

    • Guesto

       
      Actually ..

      MS Customers: SkyDrive. Done (for years)

      Apple Customers: Waiting for iClould, wishing it become as reliable as SkyDrive. Then they will be trying to figure out how to set it up, and asking how much they can control the stuff synced and how it will work, if Apple gave the the option. 

    • Guest

      “Know and set up skydrive…”
      You get it automatically if you have a Windows Live ID. There is no “setup”. It’s just there.
      Best of all, you don’t need a Windows Phone or Windows machine to use it: You can use it on your Mac too, if you ike!

      And it really isn’t difficult to start using it. I showed somone it and started sharing a document with them in a few minutes (after they got their ID sorted out).

    • http://twitter.com/AsTh11 Alessandro Grua

      I never ever had SPAM in my Hotmail inbox!

    • http://twitter.com/vashibhavin vashibhavin

      I have to agree with you. I stopped using hotmail because it used to have a lot of spam. But then recently when I had to use it to activate my WP7. I cleaned up my inbox and I get very few spam mails. Its spam filter has improved a lot in the past few years. But I think it still has a long way to go before it matches gmail. 

      Oh. I love the hotmail mobile site.

    • http://twitter.com/vashibhavin vashibhavin

      I have to agree with you. I stopped using hotmail because it used to have a lot of spam. But then recently when I had to use it to activate my WP7. I cleaned up my inbox and I get very few spam mails. Its spam filter has improved a lot in the past few years. But I think it still has a long way to go before it matches gmail. 

      Oh. I love the hotmail mobile site.

    • http://twitter.com/vashibhavin vashibhavin

      I have to agree with you. I stopped using hotmail because it used to have a lot of spam. But then recently when I had to use it to activate my WP7. I cleaned up my inbox and I get very few spam mails. Its spam filter has improved a lot in the past few years. But I think it still has a long way to go before it matches gmail. 

      Oh. I love the hotmail mobile site.

    • Anonymous

      Same, I have spam too. Heck, I even receive mails where there is another emailadress listed as receiver :s mail that is not directed to me are spamming my Hotmail

    • Guest

      I’m gonna bet you rarely flag junk as junk. If you had, over time the problem would be solved.

    • Anonymous

      True. Should do that, Hotmail learns from that.

    • Guest

      Exactly.

    • Anonymous

      Same, I have spam too. Heck, I even receive mails where there is another emailadress listed as receiver :s mail that is not directed to me are spamming my Hotmail

    • Grannyville7989

      I’ve been using Hotmail for 10 years, I have yet to receive a single spam message.

    • Guest

      “It is a plethora of spam, after spam, after spam,”

      Clearly, you haven’t used the service in years.

    • Pacific

      It is clearly YOU haven’t been using the service.

    • Guest

      Use it daily. Have done for a couple decades. Also use Gmail and Yahoo mail. Oops.

    • Pacific

      It is clearly YOU haven’t been using the service.

    • Guest

      “It is a plethora of spam, after spam, after spam,”

      Clearly, you haven’t used the service in years.

    • George-king

      All I have to say is that SkyDrive and Mesh are largely idiot proof, and work flawlessly on all my Macs.  Install program, select directories, and off you go.

    • Dhaoracle

      Sorry but you are wrong i have used the Skydrive since forever with all of ,y professional apps that cannot be sent through Dropbox. Android has “Soraimi” that syncs up with my Skydrive with anything that i put on it with no effort.

      But yes that is true that they need to market their Winning services like they do Bing. Bing is coming up and they are fighting harder to get that to other platforms than they are with their already winning services. I think that they need to make some mobile apps for all of the platforms which will bring them even more customers instead of just showing it only on Windows Phone 7. If they make an app with Sjydrive and Mesh with great functionality then they will have a winner because they will be on more platforms than just WP7. 

      Then the major thing that they will need to do is make some commercials that promote the service and app and then show off the WP7 at the end of every commercial showing off one of their unique services letting people know that it is already integrated into a great OS already. This would not only get people to use more of their services but also to buy their devices like WP7.5 and Win8. 

    • Paul_vansteenkiste

      Eric I say this with all the love in the world, but are you working in an alternate universe???

      First of all. It does sync automatically with WP7 and with your pc it most definitely has mobile versions. You can mount it as a drive in Windows, it does support versioning. And as for spam are you talking about the one ad on the right that you can click away.

      I wasn’t going to say it, but how come apparently almost every Apple user, and I’m an Apple user, is so ignorant. They don’t both reading up on anything, they just believe wat uncle steve tells them. Get a grip you guys, it’s not a Cult, Steve is not God and i-crap aren’t religious artifacts that Mother Mary once touched.

      And I know you’re ignorant brains will now cause you to reacts again without doing any research, ever so vigilantly defending your Mac OS.
      But wait , there’s good news for you guys, You don’t need to anymore.
      MacDefender will do it for you, you know that totaly legit piece of software that couldn’t be malware or it would shatter your dreamworld ideas where you are safe forever as long as you are on a Mac.

      Mark my words, 2 days ago Apple presented …. Nothing new. The company that leads in innovation, presented nothing new on it’s giant WWDC event. How do you think that will take VS Google who are constantly bringing new stuff to their platforms.

      Apple is now officially behind, and now just as I predicted the Rise of apple in 2005, that’s right I saw it coming back then, I predict sell your apple stock. Why? You won’t need to be asking why ANNO 2014.

  • Rfrederick_PMP

    Dear Microsoft PR, if you are reading this, SkyDrive is NOT iCloud. I am no Apple fanboy, and again Apple has taken your ideas and simply executed better. PLEASE WAKE UP. we want to do what Apple folks do with our Windows devices, but you always make us wait until Apple or Google gets it right first. You guys are so close with your Eco-system, but everything is still NOT plug and play simple. I really like your stuff and actually find myself teaching the nimrods at best buy why windows is cool. Make us proud MS.

    • Bob

      “…executed better”
      You mean iCloud is gonna stink like Ping, MobileMe and .Mac.

    • Guest

      Maybe. Or Maybe the fixed MobileMe instead of letting a fuckup continue like MS has wth Sync, Live Skydrive, and Mesh.

    • Guest

      Quit fighting a losing battle waiting for MS to improve its game. It won’t. It can’t. Just go Apple and get tomorrow’s MS technology today.

    • http://twitter.com/kenobeano Keno Butler

      stfu!

    • http://twitter.com/kenobeano Keno Butler

      stfu!

    • Anonymous

      Like non-annoying notifications, a camera button before the lockscreen and markup in your email that WP7 had from release and Apple is now going to introduce in iOS5, about a year later? That tomorrow?

    • Anonymous

      Why isn’t it “plug and play simple” as you put it?  My WP7 automatically syncs my docs, photos, contacts, calendar, email, etc to my SkyDrive, which then instantly shows up on my computer.  Sounds pretty much like what iCloud is, unless I’m missing something.

    • http://profiles.google.com/carlosrfonseca Carlos Ribeiro da Fonseca

      You’re obviously missing the black turtleneck sweater, so its definitely not the same.

    • Anonymous

      True.  If Apple’s taught us anything it’s that presentation matters.  A product or service isn’t important until there’s a full-blown press release and a presentation from the CEO.  

    • George-king

      No, SkyDrive is not iCloud.  However, Live Mesh is, and it is about as simple as it gets.  I have used it for the last 6 or so months to keep things sync between my iMac at work and my mac mini and MBP at home.

      I had tried Mobile Me, and that was an unmitigated disaster.

    • http://twitter.com/jimmyfal Jimmy Fallon

      You can only remove so much of the person that is totally unwilling to do ANYTHING to learn even a LITTLE bit about how a computer works. It would be nice to have devices like that. Especially as I watch countless IPAD users go into applications and use the Home button as the back button to basically go in the house and out the back door to walk back into the front door all over again to get back to where they were. If people simply learned JUST how a folder structure works, that would probably take them MILES further than they were willing to go in the first place. But I agree, MS has been way behind in the usability department, but things are REALLY starting to look good. They got bitchslapped by Apple, and they are poised and ready to come in for the kill right now. Yesterday marked the day that Apple stopped leading, and started following. I’m sure we will have plenty of cool things to come with Apple but it is now officially a 3 horse race and MS is in the rear coming up extremely quickly, about to pass the other two. Don’t blink because it might just make your head spin when you finally open your eyes again.

      JF

    • Guest

      “I’m sure we will have plenty of cool things to come with Apple but it is now officially a 3 horse race and MS is in the rear coming up extremely quickly, about to pass the other two.”

      You’re kidding, right? Apple will be double MS’s size by year end. Double. This is a two horse race between Apple and Google. MS is in the barn looking at the trophies it last won a decade ago.

    • Anonymous

      This has to be sarcasm.  Or at least really bad hyperbole.  I suppose it depends on what you mean by “size.”  If you mean employees, then Apple would need to hire 130,000 more employees to be double the size of Microsoft.  If you mean market share, then Apple would need to sell 1.7 billion computers.  Totals assets?  They’d need almost $100 billion more.  Total profit?  Using 2010 numbers they’d need another $23 billion this year.  You’re closest with net worth, but Apple would still need to make about $45.9 billion to be double Microsoft’s size.
      By year end?  You mean within the next six months?  Please think before you speak.  

    • Anonymous

      Agreed.  I have always thought SkyDrive/Mesh was nice that it backd up all your documents versus something like DropBox that requires it to be put in the folder.  But what I really want is to be able to update them in HTML Office through a browser and have copies on multiple devices that use Skydrive.

      I do not have a WP7 to test that though. Im strictly talking about how SkyDrive should be more accessible to edit documents in the cloud and update them on connected devices. As of now if I want to update a document it has to be downloaded first.

      If I am missing something then it’s Microsoft making things too complicated. I have submitted feedback to Microsoft on this too, a while back.

    • Rajesh

      Yes Sir, you are definitely missing something. You can edit and update your documents right there in your browser in SkyDrive. You don’t have to download to update it. Once updated its available on WP7.
      Photos and OneNote are automatically synchronized both ways between Skydrive and WP7. Later this year with Mango Update all document types and Videos will be automatically synchronized.

    • Anonymous

      So I have part of my documents folder syncing.  I go into skydrive then I go to synced folder to see the synced folder.  Then I can see the files, but clicking on one just downloads it.
      Again, this is strictly from my computers browser and Im not bringing WP7 into it at all.

      Why cant I click on a document and then edit it in the browser and have it sync back to my computer?

      Then, in addition, I would LOVE to be able to make a document on my computer, have it sync up with Skydrive, and send the link to friends to COLLABORATE at the same time. They allow you to send the link, but real time collab doesnt work.

    • Anonymous

      So I have part of my documents folder syncing.  I go into skydrive then I go to synced folder to see the synced folder.  Then I can see the files, but clicking on one just downloads it.
      Again, this is strictly from my computers browser and Im not bringing WP7 into it at all.

      Why cant I click on a document and then edit it in the browser and have it sync back to my computer?

      Then, in addition, I would LOVE to be able to make a document on my computer, have it sync up with Skydrive, and send the link to friends to COLLABORATE at the same time. They allow you to send the link, but real time collab doesnt work.

    • Anonymous

      So I have part of my documents folder syncing.  I go into skydrive then I go to synced folder to see the synced folder.  Then I can see the files, but clicking on one just downloads it.
      Again, this is strictly from my computers browser and Im not bringing WP7 into it at all.

      Why cant I click on a document and then edit it in the browser and have it sync back to my computer?

      Then, in addition, I would LOVE to be able to make a document on my computer, have it sync up with Skydrive, and send the link to friends to COLLABORATE at the same time. They allow you to send the link, but real time collab doesnt work.

    • Dhaoracle

      I am sure that they are thinking about new ways to set up the Skydrive with your computer before Mango and Windows 8 come out. They have to do it right because it won’t make sense for them to talk about it being connected to all devices through Skydrive if it can’t be easy on your PC. 

      What they should do is add a feature in Microsoft Office to connect to your Live and Skydrive Account so that you can have your documents saved either automatically or when you are saving it manually. They do this and market it very well then they will have the upper hand and 1/4 more customers coming to the service when they see how immature the other services are. 

    • Anonymous

      “What they should do is add a feature in Microsoft Office to connect to your Live and Skydrive Account”
      They already have this.  Starting in Office 2010 (released a year ago) there’s an option to save to and open from your Skydrive.

    • Dhaoracle

      You don’t have to download them to make any changes you should be able to edit them in the browser which they have had for the past year. You would only lose a couple of features but it is still possible to edit the document in the browser and have it synced with the rest of your devices. 

    • Anonymous

      i Won’t say that Skydrive is a iCloud Competitor
      but Windows Live is the iCloud Competitor

  • Rfrederick_PMP

    Dear Microsoft PR, if you are reading this, SkyDrive is NOT iCloud. I am no Apple fanboy, and again Apple has taken your ideas and simply executed better. PLEASE WAKE UP. we want to do what Apple folks do with our Windows devices, but you always make us wait until Apple or Google gets it right first. You guys are so close with your Eco-system, but everything is still NOT plug and play simple. I really like your stuff and actually find myself teaching the nimrods at best buy why windows is cool. Make us proud MS.

  • Rfrederick_PMP

    Dear Microsoft PR, if you are reading this, SkyDrive is NOT iCloud. I am no Apple fanboy, and again Apple has taken your ideas and simply executed better. PLEASE WAKE UP. we want to do what Apple folks do with our Windows devices, but you always make us wait until Apple or Google gets it right first. You guys are so close with your Eco-system, but everything is still NOT plug and play simple. I really like your stuff and actually find myself teaching the nimrods at best buy why windows is cool. Make us proud MS.

  • phil jay

    I don’t know what exactly the problem here is, but I also don’t know much about Live Mesh and stuff either, but as far as I understand, it allows you to sync most of your settings/programs? So where does SkyDrive actually suck where iCloud wins? Better OS integration would be nice ofc, but theres W8 for isnt it..?

  • Guest

    A long time ago, MS was worried about knowing what its customers want and they worked to deliver it, instead of the Linux community that belived that the end user needed to know how a kernel works. Nowadays i can see MS playing the Linux community role: “I don’t care what they are doing. I’m the MS. It doesn’t matter if Apple e Google are bringing up the revolution. We are MS! Final word! Apple gave us the iCloud? F**k them, we have Sky Drive. It doesn’t sync apps, settings, contents, purchases, but who cares? We have sky drive. As we said, whe are MS!!!

    • Anonymous

      It really is different on the Apple side of the fence, isn’t it?  You just described exactly how most non-Apple fans think of Apple.  You want USB ports on the iPad?  Too bad!  You want Flash on the iPhone?  You don’t need it because we say so!  You want blu-ray players in your Mac?  We don’t care!  You want a laptop for under $1000?  Sorry, that’s beneath us.  You want porn on your iPhone?  Heathens!  A flashlight app that adjusts the phone’s brightness?  How dare you use private API’s!  Keep the fart apps though.
      Oh, and you should probably read through the other comments so you get a sense of how wrong you are about syncing.  

  • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

    Those complaining that SkyDrive or Mesh don’t offers excellent functionality do not know what they are talking about, don’t know how to properly use them and cannot be bothered to use third-party services available to enhance their use.

    The only reason why Skydrive and Mesh don’t offer all the functionality some users want is because cost,  scale and the current state of competition. I have said this time and time again since Skydrive was first released.  They just finally released the numbers on SkyDrive and these alone are already huge. 2.2 petabytes that happen to be backed up compressed at 1/2 of the size of the regular data gives out that Microsoft is hosting 3.3 petabytes for Skydrive alone at no cost.

    They put out 5 million devices synced by Mesh and without any actual average figure given by Microsoft, who knows how many petabytes of bandwith have been used on that and what is the figure of data hosted on the Mesh side?

    Because lets remember that Google (or anyoneone else for that matter up to now) don’t offers anything that comes close to the scope of what Skydrive and Mesh does for free yet. The reason being it is a insanely expensive service to be offering for free. The closest is Google Docs and if i remember well, the chance to upload all kinds of documents for free is just a few months old AND there is also no official OS integrating apps.

    Others would hurry and mention CloudApp and DropBox but again, they are not one on one against  SkyDrive or Mesh either.

    Now you of course got people crying iCloud being better and it has not even been released yet while skydrive and mesh got 3 years around! ridiculous..

    • Anonymous

      Thank you man but haters do not understand and they do not want to understand

    • Lbarrett

      It sounds like you a ms supporter.
      I work for K2 which is a recruitment agency. I was brought on to build a market within microsofts cloud.

      However the more i read the more i get confused… please could you spare 10mins (whenever is good for you) If this is ok, will you drop me an email with a contact number to -  lbarrett@k2partnering.com 
      @k2partnering:disqus 

    • Guest

      Erm I can access dropbox on most mobile OS and unfortunately thats one feature SkyDrive doesn’t have… Also dropbox plays well with linux(my university mainly uses red hat in labs and the best way to keep my collected data synced is dropbox)

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Joyce/1847068244 Mike Joyce

      All you had to say is your “university”.  Figures that you don’t work in the real world. 

    • http://www.facebook.com/people/Mike-Joyce/1847068244 Mike Joyce

      All you had to say is your “university”.  Figures that you don’t work in the real world. 

    • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

      I don’t know what you are using but you can acccess Skydrive mobile in any Smartphone OS even Symbian or BadaOS. In Linux you can use he regular web interface in Firefox 4, Chrome 10+ and even Opera 11. You can use SkyDrive Synchronizer via the Command Line if you got Mono installed or any of the many WebDav clients in Linux to access SkyDrive.

      And i am not guessing, i have done this in Suse,Ubuntu, Symbian (what would be S^3), BadaOS, WM (5,6,6.1,6.5) and even BBOS (5 and 6). So am seriously don’t know what you are talking about. Unless you have not used SkyDrive in the last 18 months.

    • http://www.tptbh.com/ AMAcloud.COM & AMAppSTORE.COM

      Azure or MScloud?

    • http://www.appatic.com Avatar X

      Sorry, what was that? I don’t read trollesque ;)                     (kidding…mostly)

  • Anonymous

    iPuff is what Skydrive was yesterday. Today it’s proven, reliable, and will continue to lead by improving into tomorrow’s auto-sync of everything for millions of desktops, laptops, netbooks, slates, tablets, phones and xbox.

  • http://unhub.com/eingoluq Eingoluq

    The Microsoft vs Apple posts a drawing alot of traffic
    keep it up. Let it be a yin to there yang.

  • http://unhub.com/eingoluq Eingoluq

    The Microsoft vs Apple posts a drawing alot of traffic
    keep it up. Let it be a yin to there yang.

  • Guest

    SkyDrive/iCloud vs. rsync in POSIX systems (Unix – Linux, *BSD, Mac OSX and non-Unix – Haiku OS) for over a decade, even Windows I think. Free, and you get to keep your privacy.

    Note: Purely informative, not being a troll.

  • Julienschwaab

    skydrive , and mesh works great, I use it to sync my computers… but it would be good to get more than 25 gig (and pay for it) !!

  • Anonymous

    Doesn’t Zune Pass count as “the cloud” services? What about MSN Music? I LOVED MSN Music as an alternative to iTunes before Amazon crushed it’s small market share and Rhapsody was the replacement for it.

    OK, I didn’t LOVE the DRM of MSN Music but I REALLY hated (and still do) iTunes.