Microsoft hands out 20GB of free SkyDrivestorage to Windows Phone owners

Right in the middle of the busy holiday period, Microsoft has stepped up to offer Windows Phone owners an extra bit of cheer. No doubt to account for the many photos and videos WP users will be uploading over the next few weeks, the Redmond company sent out emails allowing owners to activate 20GB of free SkyDrive storage. Your device running out of storage? This is the perfect gift to not only mitigate that issue, but also encourage users to start taking advantage of Microsoft’s cloud storage service.

Microsoft is distributing some holiday cheer to Windows Phone owners today with an email inviting them to activate a bonus 20GB of SkyDrive storage. The bump in cloud storage will be active for a year and users are given until the end of January to claim their slice of it. SkyDrive has grown increasingly important for Microsoft, particularly with the changes introduced in Windows 8.1, and the company is already giving away a generous 200GB allowance for two years with every purchase of Surface 2 or Surface Pro 2 tablets. Extending the bonus storage offers to the rest of its ecosystem makes commercial sense for Microsoft — insofar as it encourages more people to use its services more often — while also endearing the company to its loyal user base.