Google has announced it will be giving away 1TB of free Google Drive storage space to all new Chromebook buyers, reports PC World.
Additionally, the free storage space will be available for two years. At the current price of $9.99 per month for a 1TB account, that amounts to almost $240 worth of storage space Google is giving away for free.
As posted in their blog, Google says the 1TB offer is "a bonus for the holiday season" for new Chromebook buyers.
"With that much free storage, you can use your Chromebook for work, play and pretty much everything else you'll do this holiday season.. The 1TB comes with the purchase of a new, eligible Chromebook for as little as $199... just be sure to redeem the offer before January 1, 2015," writes Alex Vogenthaler, Group Product Manager for Google.
Google's 1TB offer is similar to that offered by Microsoft, which bundles a year's worth of Office 365 Personal (which costs almost $70) for new buyers of selected laptops, says PC World's Mark Hachman. A subscription for Office 365 includes 1TB storage space in Microsoft's OneDrive.
Jillian D'Onfro of Business Insider says the offer of 1TB storage space for free "is a big win," considering that Chromebook owners need to access and use Google Drive to get work done.
"Chromebooks run Chrome OS, an operating system based on the Chrome web browser. Everything you want to do on your Chromebook, you have to do on the web. So instead of writing something in Microsoft Word and saving to your desktop, you use Google Drive to store your Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Slides etc. in the cloud," explains D'Onfro.
Chris Welch of The Verge agrees. "The cloud is a vital part of Google's Chrome OS strategy, so throwing in a ton of space is a good way of easing the transition for anyone moving their documents, music, and entire digital life to Google's servers."