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

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.