Windows Live SkyDrive is releasing a new version today, emerging from Beta. The biggest news is that the free space allotment has been increased to 5GB. That's more room for all your media and other necessary files, and represents a significant increase from the previous amount of a mere 1GB.
Do people need 5GB of online space just yet? Microsoft says that this was a feature that users frequently requested, so a big jump from 1GB to 5GB is certainly one way to deflect attention away from the fact that SkyDrive is looking to compete with Gmail? Even though SkyDrive isn't an email offering, people often compare the two, for the simple fact that the race for free storage offerings is an ongoing one. What I'd rather hear about is the fact that this much space doesn't appear to be directly marketed for enterprise use, nor does it have the platform approach that services like Box.net have.
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Though SkyDrive is part of the Windows suite of applications, I wonder at the level of integration and how this could eventually overshadow the platform approach that web-based tools are offering users. The downfall in not having robust web-based offerings is that interaction with files accessed through SkyDrive will still rely on individual computers having the slew of Microsoft applications already installed.