Google has been offering 100GB of free cloud storage to customers who buy Chromebooks fro a while. Now the company is stepping up its game: if you buy an eligible Chromebook between now and January 1st you’ll get 1TB of Google Drive storage space for free.
That’s a pretty good deal when you consider that Google normally charges $240 for that kind of storage… but you can buy a Chromebook for as little as $199.
Google Drive is an online storage service that you can use to store and share files, pictures, and other media. It’s also home to Google Docs, an online office suite that lets you create, edit, and collaborate on spreadsheets, text documents, and presentations.
Google’s not the only company in the 1TB club though. Microsoft also includes a terabyte of online storage through its OneDrive service to Microsoft Office 365 subscribers. That means you can get 1TB of cloud storage from Microsoft for as little as $70 per year… as well as access to Word , Excel, PowerPoint, and other Office apps. What’s more, many inexpensive laptops and tablets come with a 1-year subscription to Office 365 Personal for free.
I tried to redeem the 1 TB with my Asus Chromebox at home, which I bought as soon as they were released, and I had already claimed the 100 GB offer. It said I wasn’t eligible. I had read here and elsewhere that a powerwash might resolve the issue, but rather than try that right away, I decided to try it from the identical Chromebox my employer had bought for me at work and that I had not tried to redeem anything on. I got the 1 TB right away! Not sure what I’ll do with it, especially for only two years, but it will be awesome to have it if I do come up with a need.
I guess 10TB was 3 Chromebooks and a Chromebox to obtain. It could take two years to upload that much content.
They can do this because they know that the overall GB/user is barely going to shift, so the “free terabyte” is worth far more as a promotional tool for Chromebooks than it costs Google to supply. Only a tiny minority of Chromebook uses will ever take advantage of more than 100GB of cloud storage.