HTC is offering free cloud storage space to buyers of its new HTC One smartphone. The cloud storage space is heating up on mobile platforms, with almost every major handset vendor building their own cloud services. These services from manufacturers are great, provided only if you're a brand loyalist. Apple's iCloud, for instance, will be of no use if you're using an iPhone 4S and a Samsung Galaxy Tab. HTC is taking a different approach. Instead of building its own cloud service, the Taiwanese company
partnered with Dropbox, one of the hottest startups yet with valuation reaching the billions. For each purchase of any of the company's three new HTC One smartphones, users will receive 25GB of free Dropbox storage for two years. For the sake of comparison, a regular Dropbox user receives only 2GB of free storage initially, while the cheapest upgrade costs $100 per year for 50GB storage. The free 25GB for two years given by HTC therefore has an estimated value of $100.
Dropbox on Android, The Perfect Photo Backup Solution
Dropbox had recently updated its Android app to bring automated photos and videos upload, not unlike Google+'s Instant Upload. The company had earlier experimented with its photo uploading mechanism on desktop clients. Users participating in the beta test were awarded up to
5GB of free storage. With 25GB of free storage, HTC CEO Peter Chou claims that users of the new HTC One can store up to 10,000 high quality photos. Google+'s Instant Upload does not limit the amount of photos you can upload, but each photos will be resized to only 2048 pixels on their longest edge. That wouldn't do justice to photos taken with the HTC One X, which has a 8-megapixel rear camera with f/2.0 lens and backside-illuminated sensor. It's anyone's guess what will happen two years later, after your free storage has expired. If the deal between HTC and Dropbox hasn't expired by then, chances are you can keep your free storage by purchasing a new HTC device. Otherwise, you'd probably have to get off Dropbox or pay to upgrade your Dropbox storage.