Yahoo will raise the storage limit given to its free
e-mail users and bump its premium subscribers up to a "virtually
unlimited" capacity.
The company is keen to show that it is ready to take on rival
Google, which grabbed headlines with the announcement that it will
offer Gmail, a free e-mail service with a 1Gbyte limit.
Yahoo will raise the storage limits for its free e-mail users
later in the second quarter or third quarter of this year from
the exisiting 6Mbytes to 100Mbytes, a spokeswoman confirmed.
Premium subscribers - who pay close to $50 a year for 100Mbytes
of storage - will be given "virtually unlimited" capacity later
this year.
Jupiter Research analyst Olivier Beauvillain said that the extra
storage offering was a necessary move.
"I think all the web-based e-mail providers such as Yahoo
and MSN Hotmail need to react to what Google will launch," he
said.
The main factors distinguishing different e-mail services are
storage and antispam features and it is easier for users to compare
the size of inboxes, he added.
Executives from Yahoo did not say exactly how much storage
capacity premium subscribers will receive, but the spokesman
confirmed that it was "on par" with Gmail's 1Gbyte limit, which
lets users save about 500,000 pages of e-mail.
The unlimited increase is also being extended to include Yahoo
subscribers through high-speed internet access partners such as SBC
Communications.
Scarlet Pruitt writes for IDG News Service