Not to be outdone by Google Inc.’s recent bold e-mail offering, Yahoo Inc. said that it plans to dramatically raise the storage limit given to its free e-mail users while at the same time bumping its premium subscribers up to a “virtually unlimited” capacity.
The storage hikes were announced by Yahoo executives at an analyst meeting on Thursday, where the company was keen to show that it is ready to take on rival Google, which grabbed headlines with the announcement in March that it is planning to offer a free e-mail service with a 1GB limit dubbed Gmail.
Responding to the Gmail offer, Yahoo plans to raise the storage limits for its free e-mail users later in the second quarter or third quarter of this year from the current 6MB to 100MB, a U.K. spokeswoman for the company confirmed Friday. Meanwhile, premium subscribers — who currently pay close to US$50 a year for 100MB of storage — will be given “virtually unlimited” capacity later this year, the spokeswoman said.
Executives from the Sunnyvale, Calif., company did not say exactly how much storage capacity premium subscribers will receive but the spokesman confirmed that it was “on par” with Gmail’s 1GB limit.
“Basically it will be hard for users to perceive that there is a limit,” the spokeswoman said.
The increase is also being extended to include Yahoo subscribers through high-speed Internet access partners such as SBC Communications Inc., the spokeswoman said.
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