What’s happened? The Korean tech giant Samsung is preparing to revive its own cloud storage platform and position it as a rival to Apple’s iCloud and Google’s paid solutions.
- After reports of Samsung ending its long-standing partnership with Microsoft OneDrive for photo and video backups, the company is now testing 49GB and 199GB paid subscription plans for Galaxy smartphone users.
- The X user @DevOfIpos has shared two screenshots revealing the development. One image appears to show the status page, while another, titled “Change storage plans,” lists two tiers priced at $1 per month. However, these prices are likely placeholders rather than the actual costs.
Why is this important? This marks a major strategic shift from an outsourced cloud storage model to a unified, in-house ecosystem.
- For years, Samsung’s native cloud service has only been used to back up core device data such as call logs, messages, contacts, settings, and app layouts, while Microsoft’s OneDrive handled photo and video backups.
- However, by launching its own end-to-end cloud storage solution, Samsung aims to offer a seamless backup that covers everything, including your media files.
Why should I care? Samsung already has one of the largest smartphone customer bases in the world, and introducing its own paid cloud storage could help it replicate the success of Apple and Google.
- This new service will offer a one-stop storage solution, eliminating the need to maintain a separate Microsoft OneDrive account.
- When you upgrade to a new Galaxy phone, you’ll be able to restore all your data from a single source, just like iCloud users or Android users who rely on Google Drive.
- That said, this move also indicates Samsung’s intent to further lock users into its ecosystem. While you’ll still be able to back up data to Google Drive, Samsung will likely offer exclusive perks to encourage users to choose its own cloud platform instead.
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OK, what’s next? Apple’s iCloud offers privacy-focused tools like Private Relay and Hide My Email, while Google One includes perks such as a built-in VPN, advanced photo editing tools, and access to premium Gemini AI models.
- In my opinion, the company will have to come up with some unique benefits, like exclusive Galaxy AI features.
- You can expect an official announcement from Samsung soon, likely confirming its departure from Microsoft OneDrive, the introduction of a migration tool, and the rollout of the new paid Samsung Cloud tiers.
- The launch is expected to coincide with the Galaxy S26 series in early 2026, alongside One UI 8.5.
