A company called Streamload is offering consumers a free 10
gigabyte online storage locker for multimedia files, potentially raising the stakes for
larger companies such as Yahoo and America
Online.
Streamload typically provides online
storage space for a price, making it one of the few companies to survive in that business
through the dot-com shakeout. However, it is increasingly competing with larger companies
that offer online homes for digital photographs, and even the huge archive space provided by
Google's Gmail service.
Company executives say the offer of big online storage
lockers, once used only by advanced computer users, is now more relevant to a broader public
that has large collections of digital photographs and MP3 files.
"It seems to have
come to appeal not only to the hard-core early adopters, but to mainstream users,"
Streamload CEO Steve Iverson said. "It's no longer a novelty to have an MP3 player, and
even having a place online to store MP3 files so you can fill up your iPod on the road has
become more common."
Iverson's argument illustrates one side of a race between
falling prices for data storage, such as computer hard drives, and the increasing ease of
storing data on a network.
Some computer experts have argued that when all devices
are connected to the Net, storing data locally will be unnecessary. Others note that cheap
hard drives that are expanding to hold hundreds of gigabytes mean that it will be more
efficient to store data locally whenever possible.
Streamload's service does allow
its customers to share files stored on the system, much as Yahoo Photos allows subscribers
to provide access to photographs to friends. In the past, this has led to online storage
lockers being used to hold and distribute pirated music, movies and software, but Iverson
said his company had guards in place against this.
People who sign up for the free
10GB service can only download 100MB a month and can only upload files of 100MB at a time.
Customers who pay about $10 a month have much looser restrictions.
The free offer
will go into effect Monday, the company said.
Last week, AOL confirmed that it plans
to offer its subscribers a free 100MB storage locker. Rival Xdrive offers 5 gigabytes for
free during a 15-day trial, and then charges $10 a month.
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