Microsoft is announced today that is going to convert its hotmail service into an email service called outlook.com
Microsoft acquired Hotmail in 1998.
Hotmail has about 350 million active users.
Gmail has roughly 425 million users
It looks like Microsoft acquired the domain name Outlook.com in early 2008.
You check check out a review of the new Outlook.com mail service here
Not a smart rebranding IMHO. People are used to Hotmail.. it’s on their business cards, brochures, and other marketing material. Another fact is that many people don’t like the email client software Outlook. You hear people moving away and using Thunderbird or just about any other software. So to rebrand it as Outlook may not be the best way.
The article on Money.com says gmail & Yahoo both have 298 million users each – not the gmail number of 425 million stated.
In any event – Hotmail is not a modern name for modern demands / services.
And candidly – with all the facebook nonsense going on – that name is rapidly obsoleteing itself.
too late to beat GMail
I think you’re off-base, Abdu. Hotmail has quite negative connotations and has an unprofessional almost childish image about it – especially in the business world. Outlook may not be popular with consumers these days, but I’d argue that’s due to email clients declining in popularity in favour of web mail in general, rather than a specific problem with Outlook. In any case, Outlook is still very widely used in corporate circles and has a good reputation. I think axing the Hotmail and Live brands was long overdue, personally.
poo on you abdu abdu… bill gates is an internet genius. i remember in 1993 when he fired three people for questioning his opinion that the internet was just a bunch of geeks and there’s no money to be made there. his internet strategy has become stupider and stupider ever since.
Anything is an improvement over the previous hotmail version, it was drab. Just had a look at my hotmail account which I don’t use regularly, and you can do a lot of editing to your page and profile to make it look better, more social media – like. They had to do something, whatever they’re going to call it. Outlook isn’t a bad choice because it should mesh with their Office email program.
I like the minimalistic look and how it nicely matches the windows 8 colors 🙂
just doesn’t seem like an intuitive email address name. sure hotmail is cheesy by now.
fizzle.
Good: As long as the reference frame is .com
Hotmail has lots of fans. Back in 1999 it was all hotmail or yahoo.
My view is that hotmail and yahoo are now used as secondary email addresses.
@Mike, that is how I use them
ps. every android user has to make gmail account in order to make their phone to work properly, still they use yahoo or hotmails. In nokia point of view this outlook thing should have been done earlyer.
“Not a smart rebranding IMHO. People are used to Hotmail.. it’s on their business cards, brochures, and other marketing material.”
Abdu, this is why everybody should register and use a .tel name
This way you would only have on your business card for example Abdu.tel and the changes would be done electronically in only a few seconds and at zero cost. This way you would never lose your business or personal contacts because people could ALWAYS find you
“your business card ”
A yahoo/gmail/live/msn/hotmail… business email address admits they do not understand the “branding” the Internet brings to the table.
And add to that list ALL the non.coms, including .info, .biz, .me, .pro, .tel and whatever BS that says you were not smart enough to get the .com.
.XXX may be an exception – but who is going to run around in the general public offering adult services.
I’m all ready using it. It’s really cool. I also have Gmail and AOL Mail but Hotmail was my main. Now Outlook is my main because I upgraded.
I wasn’t happy when Microsoft changed it to Outlook. The layout is fine…I actually like the layout and its font.. but its new/modified functions are frustrating…I don’t like how it would automatically sign me on to my messenger everytime I check my email and ever since Microsoft has made major changes to MSN…I now get issues with my messenger with the default messenger theme, adding new contacts; having a hard time finding where some specific settings are, etc.