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Microsoft to Sell Outlook Subscription Service
An anonymous contributor writes "Boston.com is reporting that Microsoft will begin selling Outlook as a subscription service to compete with add-on services provided by Yahoo and Google. 'The new service, which costs $59.95 per year, will let people organize e-mail, contact lists and calendars in their online Hotmail accounts using the Microsoft Outlook program most often found on businesses' desktop computers.' I can't see many users paying for this service. Most Hotmail users use it because it is free, or they don't know about the alternatives. Paying for access via Outlook doesn't seem to fit with that market segment."
TFA Article Says:
Microsoft is smart to take advantage of a popular core product -- Outlook -- to help make Hotmail more attractive to sophisticated users.
They're not targeting fungrl149@hotmail.com here. They're targeting the exact segment of the market that Gmail appeals to now. Gmail took free web mail and turned it into a legitimate and attractive service. MS would now like to up the ante a bit and charge a little (and the dude said the price was 'steep', so it'll probably come down before launch) and provide more feature richness for that money. It's just another step towards the increasing legitimacy and acceptance of online services either replacing or merging with traditional desktop applications. I'm no fan of MS, but their participation in the advancement of web based email services or other apps is part and parcel of the general move forward.
I Want To Believe
I'd pay to have it removed
Making you pay for what your ISP will usually provide for free? No decent ISP doesn't provide that level of content package. Just because nobody uses it doesn't mean its not there...
In related news, FlyByNight Inc has announced that it will begin offering Outlook Express in a new reverse-subscription method. "We'll give users $59.95 per year to use this email program without antivirus software. Just install it, and we'll put your check in the mail right away," FlyByNight's Vice President of Public Relations, I. 0wnzJ00 explained.
Steve Ballmer initially acknowledged FlyByNight's efforts, stating, "We haven't been able to give it away - we bundled it with Windows, and people go out of their way to uninstall Outlook Express. We applaud FlyByNight's new distribution methods."
What's your damage, Heather?
Not to mention that Outlook Express provides access and synchronization of Hotmail accounts for free. Hopefully MS will not remove this feature, as it is much more convenient than logging into the web interface.
Now I can pay for worms and viruses!
Now we have to pay to get more spam and virii?
I suspect that the road warrior might use this - independant contractors (one man companies, in other words) who need to be able to access their email from anywhere, but might also want to do stuff like sync their Palm, or manage their stuff more quickly than can be done easily through Hotmail. I do agree Microsoft isn't likely to make much money off it, though it might be profitable once it's up and running as it'll cost little to maintain over and above their regular Hotmail servers.
Does the Microsoft Outlook Subscription come with complimentary e-mail viri?
They don't support a basic feature like folders, it's not very attractive in my eyes.
Now with more money because you don't know better.
This is another way of starting a sig with this and ending it with that.
I don't they're selling access via Outlook.
I think they're renting the Outlook software itself. I have Outlook and can access my hotmail through it currently. That's been a feature for a while.
What they're offering here is a cost-effective model to acquire Outlook to use with Hotmail...
I am disrespectful to dirt! Can you see that I am serious?!
Most Hotmail users use it because it is free, or they don't know about the alternatives.
Most users have unruly amounts of spam. Hotmail, IMO, is the worst for spam.
I can't see many users paying for this service. Most Hotmail users use it because it is free, or they don't know about the alternatives. Paying for access via Outlook doesn't seem to fit with that market segment.
It's news for nerds, and the commentary belongs on the comments page. Thank you.
So this is only for people who used web-based email programs? Why would I want to pay $60 for Outlook *per year* if I can use my current version of outlook now, for free, and import web-based email?
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
For just $5.95 per year you can purchase the blue screen portion of the service. For 19.95 per year, you get both the blue screen and clippy portion of the service.
Uh oh! Firefox is getting more popular! Thunderbird is becoming a viable email client! You're losing ground! What do you do? Quick, think! I've got it! Charge people yearly for stuff you didn't used to!
Against stupidity the Gods themselves contend in vain.
I've always wanted to pay for the privilege to distribute the worm-of-the-week. The sad part is, with the number of people who are so dependant on hotmail and Outlook, this'll probably take off.
Yay.
This is wonderful news for Mozilla. With the increasing popularity of FireFox among non-geeks, now is the perfect time to convert Outlookers to Thunderbird.
Only with Microsoft your calendar data isn't encrypted.
Now there is a chance of gmail being available via IMAP any soon ;-))
btw, this is my first post as registered user!
'The new service, which costs $59.95 per year, will let people organize e-mail, contact lists and calendars in their online Hotmail accounts using the Microsoft Outlook program most often found on businesses' desktop computers.'
There is a free preview available here.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
Microsoft is selling their Outlook Subscription Service already? I didn't even know it existed!
Thanks -- I'll be here all week.
*Letter*
Most Hotmail users use it because it is free, or they don't know about the alternatives.
I have a hotmail account as my permanent email address since 1996? maybe 1995? It was around the time that usa.com was starting to offer free lifetime email addresses. I looked at the idea, and chose a company (MS) that isn't going anywhere. I change ISPs, I change employers, but until MS goes out of business, I have one email address that isn't going away.
Yes, I've got gmail, and I've got yahoo. Heck, I've even got mail.com (what usa.com became, later bought by outblaze) but hotmail.com is what's on my resume.
Sounds like .Mac.
Which is to say, not as crazy as it seems on the surface. If people really like the MS application, and like being able to access it anywhere, they're liable to pay.
Big if, though.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
i knew they were lying when they said they were getting rid of free outlook protocol support in hotmail to cut spam. now its obvious why.
I know I'm trolling here, but this is like paying a hooker to proposition you. "Hey, honey, lookin' for a good time? No? Well, that'll be sixty bucks, anyway."
You are in error. No-one is screaming. Thank you for your cooperation.
People see surfrdood344@hotmail.com on my resume and say, "this guy means business"...
being able to have easier access to my hotmail account? priceless...
With Microsoft's experience delivering various products off of an application server, as well as their extensive experience in remote computing and web delivery there may be some potential for this to really work well. From a tech support standpoint it would be very nice if everytime someone started Outlook it fetched any necessary files, updated itself, and rebuilt after damage automatically the way it can in an application server environment.
As well, given the cost of Outlook, a fee that included annual upgrades to the new version might not be bad.
"Be proud to be a fighter" - Martial Arts Adage
I currently use Hotmail Popper (http://www.boolean.ca/hotpop/ - $17.50) with Mozilla Thunderbird...not only does it work like a charm, but it's also, well, not Outlook.
However, I do see that Hotmail might try to cockblock my Hotmail Popper access...hopefully alternative solutions will popup to allow me to circumvent this.
Just once I'd like someone to call me 'Sir' without adding 'You're making a scene.'
Now they come back and sell it to you.
OE used to have the ability to use Hotmail as one of it's providers (not sure if it still does but looking at this announcement I doubt it). It was basically an IMAP connection to Hotmail. I have used this in the past and it worked well, Now they are goign to relaunch it with a price of ~$60 per year? Don't know where I am going with this comment. It was probably the best way to use hotmail, but is it worth charging for? Well either way I'm cheap and won't be paying any money to MS/Hotmail for this fuctionality, I'll just have to be sad and think back to the days when I had it for free.
Actually it doesn't matter since I use gmail now.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
Now, if they would just get that damn calendar feature/program finished!
The biggest missing-part for Thunderbird/Foss solution for businesses is the lack of Thunderbird Server Client and a shared Calendar with meeting/reminder/etc.
DAMN YOU OCTODOG! DAMN YOU TO HELL!
Well if you're skeptical I guess that's why Bill Gates is Bill Gates and you're whoever you are :P Time will tell whether it is a wise move or not, if we even get to find that out.
Diane: right you are, Tom. i know several have "jumped on the Bandwagon", already.
Tom: nice contribution, Diane.
Diane: and you're a piece of trash, Tom.
If Evolution/Open-Xchange can import all Outlook data, this is a great opportunity for Microsoft to educate their Hotmail customers on the benefits of switching, then steal them for the superior Evolution/Open-Xchange platform. Especially when Evolution runs on Windows, too, and we can host Open-Xchange on Linux. The PIM server biz will explode in the coming few years, especially when others follow Palm's lead in including "MS-Exchange" sync with their mobile "phone" PIM SW.
The key obstacle, as usual, is MS-proprietary data formats and protocols. The MS-Ex sync protocol is available for licensing. And PIM data uses standard vCal and VCard data, though there are MS-proprietary formats, too. Our Open community can pull this off with many people each doing our small part to reengineer those formats, and get Evolution/Open-Xchange to seamlessly import the native MS formats. MS is blinking - let's hit 'em between the eyes!
--
make install -not war
Google have announced that they will be happy to license thier google api to all software vendors wishing to use it for commercial purposes. Each license/account will cost them $59.95 per year.
:-)
Inother news, google offers FREE as in gratis, beer, and hot pr0n s3x, POP 3 email checker, that is right folks, get your (secure) pop3 access through gmail, and never have to look at that ugly, insecure javascript frame attrocity* again!
*: I like it tho'!
#hostfile 0.0.0.0 primidi.com 0.0.0.0 www.primidi.com 0.0.0.0 radio.weblogs.com
When I first read this article I saw this as a really stupid decision by Microsoft. It didn't seem to make any business sense at all. Then I saw it for what it really is. It's phase one in Microsoft's overall strategy to turn Office into a subscription service.
Little by little, piece by piece, you'll see various Office applications offered as a service, with the ultimate goal of making users pay the Microsoft tax once a year.
Gates isn't an idiot. He's seeing the ever increasing upgrade cycle. Let's face the facts, Office 2003 offers very few new useful features to your typical Office user than was there in Office 2000. Some would argue that all the way back to Office 98. He would love to get users into a subscription model. If you don't pay the yearly tax, your cut off, just like that.
Since Outlook is pre-bundled with a monopoly OS, does this not constitute "Unfair Competition"?
It would seem to be a clear case of leveraging a monopoly position in one market to gain a business advantage in another market.
Isn't this why AT&T was forcibly seperated from the Regional Bell Operating Companies? AT&T had been using its monopoly on local dial tone service to favor AT&T's long distance service.
This kind of behavior is quite illegal.
I'm going to get modded down for saying something positive about Microsoft but here goes anyway...
MS is going to charge for MOOC - the Microsoft Office Outlook Connector. If you have a premium MSN subscription you can download MOOC and it will interface between the windows mail system and outlook. It allows complete synchronization between outlook and msn (and now hotmail for 59.95). anything you have in outlook - mail, notes, calendars, tasks, etc. will be synchronized with hotmail
It's a neat piece of software and works seamlessly. MOOC + Outlook > GMail.
Outlook Connector for MSN. They're probably just enabling it as a pay service for the Hotmail accounts.
I believe it is an HTTP-based proprietary access method. It's been a while since I used it, but it didn't support IMAP itself, but rather proprietary extensions in Outlook/Outlook Express. Or you could use POP when running a daemon to talk to it like HotPop
This service doesn't just give Microsoft a new revenue stream (which they're not exactly desperate for in any case) it gives people a chance to try out Exchange features without the investment of an Exchange infrastructure. Which would, theoretically, encourage more people to adopt Exchange in place of other email server software.
None of what I've just said should be taken as advocacy for the software just described. Some of Exchange's workflow features are intriguing, but I have too many concerns over MS's quality and security problem. Plus I'm a standards zealot -- I'm not going to encourage any more MS technology lockin. Plus the weird, messy, I-know-what-you-really-want design of Outlook makes me want to scream.
To use a subscription based version of Outlook, they are probably smart enough not to have a Hotmail account.
If you look on this webpage, there is a paypal subscribe button.
;-)
You can 'subscribe' to Thunderbird too.
IMHO that's a better option. Cheaper, better software.
Eventually all their products will be run as a service, and be subscription based.
I can't wait for the day when we as consumers can no longer buy things, we must rent them- and be bound to their EULA's.
What a great way to harvest citizens. "They aren't free thinking individuals- they're a cash crop, owned by corporations!"
At least, that's how I understand it.
Are they just rebranding the "hotmail pro" service (whatever it's called) as "Outlook", in the same way Netscape is being branded as an ISP, or Napster as a music service?
It seems rebranding well known apps as pay-per services is all the rage.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Now when current users access their Hotmail account, thye get a message telling them "Your next email will be ready soon, but Outlook subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!"
whoa! neato. I've been busy for the past several years installing my Gentoo distro - what is this Microsoft thingy you're speaking of? And Outlook and Hotmail - sounds painfull, but what the heck, I'm a sporting guy. Tell you what, double the price and force me to activate all my software and I will be more than happy to get in on this superb deal! With a name like Microsft - it has to be a trustworthy company!
Gates isn't an idiot. He's seeing the ever increasing upgrade cycle. Let's face the facts, Office 2003 offers very few new useful features to your typical Office user than was there in Office 2000. Some would argue that all the way back to Office 98. He would love to get users into a subscription model. If you don't pay the yearly tax, your cut off, just like that.
Yup. It used to be that you had to innovate if you wanted customers to trade in the old one and buy a new one. But that's too much work. I'm sure companies would like to do nothing else but sit there and get paid, and by adopting these new strategies, they can do just that. There will be no more using Office 2000 for 5 years because it's good enough. Now you'll have to give them your money every year, whether you want the new features or not.
I'm sure other companies will join the new model, and you won't be able to actually "own" anything anymore. Open source throws a wrench into those plans though. (so it must be outlawed!)
No-one seems to be mentioning it, but they used to offer this service for free (when creating a new account in Outlook express it gives you the option to add a hotmail account).
...the average Hotmail user. They probably want to attract more business users to their service and Outlook is probably the way to do it. For those small and mid sized businesses that don't have and can't afford an Exchange server, this will probably be an answer to their prayers. Now, let's just hope MS doesn't treat them as shabbily as they treat most Hotmail users. I had a Hotmail account for a while until they lost my mail and wouldn't recover it for me. Ever since that experience and an ISP who stole my address and gave it to another customer after seven years of use, I now run my own mail server at home. After all, who can you trust with your e-mail if you can't trust yourself? Now if only it was possible for joe user to run mail and groupware services at home...
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Give yourself a chance: Try Thunderbird + Gmail :) combination
I have comcast and the email seems to work fine...I can access it via thunderbird or the web...
however friends with hotmail/yahoo/whatever often suffer delays when sending/receiving messages, etc. I can see if you don't want to change an email address for a business, but otherwise I don't see the point now that POP3 access is a "premium" feature.
and why in the world would anyone pay $60 a year for a crippled version of outlook of all things? If you are using webmail in the first place I doubt you really need something with all of the functionality of outlook.
i saw the baby, and the baby looked at me
I'd say it makes a lot of sense for MS to do this. One of the problems with web-based email services (99% of them anyway) is that you HAVE to be connected to use them. One of the problems with Outlook is that you have to have an Exchange server to get maximum functionality, and most non-businesses don't go that route.
;)
This basically allows non-big-corp users to gain access to their email from anywhere, using a standard client, 100% of the functionality of that client, without having to fork over thousands of dollars for exchange. To someone that is strictly a consultant, this might be a very appealing offering, and something that no other service can provide right now (feel free to fix that problem though
Mod parent up....
Paying for access via Outlook doesn't seem to fit with that market segment.
Marketing 101, do not target development at your market niche try to fit into new spaces.
A business could buy Windows based email hosting for their entire company (with good spam filters too). Linux solutions are even cheaper.
Now, I have seen businesses use the shared documents features of Outlook for company wide documents. But at that point, these businesses have their own server and don't need any outside offering.
Basically, it seems that small businesses will save every penny they can and skip this offering while large businesses already have their own solution.
I've had a hotmail account for years that I don't use for anything (I use their IM so I had to have the account). I've probably gotten one or two spams in that entire time. Spam comes from harvesting, in my experience. I've had a similar experience with my acm account. And no, I'm not posting the account names here ;)
Six score characters.
Brevity being wit's soul
I have enough space.
With Microsoft Exchange becoming less favored in many corporate datacenters, and the threat of open source PIMs coming to Windows, like Evolution or Chandler, this change has the appearance of Microsoft making an effort to convince people to use servers they control to store PIM data and messages.
This gives Microsoft an excellent lock-in strategy, further down the road -- not only would you have to change email addresses to change clients, you would have to rebuild your contact database, transfer your calendar items, etc.
The only part that I find surprising, here, is that Microsoft would bother charging for the service. Why not make it free, then turn it to a pay service when they have properly locked up your data in their servers?
Weapons of Mass Analysis
The Outlook subscription service was covered back in September of last year. The only difference between then and now is the price they've settled on.
I'm not good in groups. It's difficult to work in a group when you're omnipotent. - Q
The sad thing is millions will pay for this service.. the same millions who open up virus and spam E-mails everyday....
.. use it.. I personally would not use it, but I know some people who want to be so tech connected they will find a way to pay for it...
Only 'flamers' flame!
Does slashdot hate my posts?
It has Y! Mail Plus, and it offers POP3 and SMTP access (along with disposable e-mail, etc).
So what's the big fuzz?
http://domains.msn.com - there you go. Pricey, but if you want respect you'll probably pony up the dough. :0)
The FINE thing about using gmail's pop-option, is that it even stores copies of the pop-SENT mail. So, when you go into the web-interface, the sent mails will be there. This only works if you use their SMTP to send it with..
So, it's nice to have offsite backup of ALL the mail..
A horse can't be sick, you know, even if he wants to.
IMHO this beats google.
The sad thing is, is that Microsoft will probably make a good chunck of change on this. There are a lot of people who refuse to see that there is a world out there other than Microsoft.
Friends of my wife and I had a bunch of spyware on their PC. I cleaned up there system and then put Firefox on there. I said, "Use this instead. It's just as easy as IE, but you won't get as much malware on your system."
They said, "Ok!"
The next day I came by and somehow they figured out a way to get the IE icon back on their desktop and set up as the default browser. I was floored. Non techies can do amazing feats to fulfill their stubbornance to use second grade products and services. There's a buddy of mine who pays for some fancy MSN junk. I told him, "You can do that all for free. Yes, even on Windows" He's still a subscriber.... Sad, isn't it?
Some of us have had hotmail accounts since long before the beast brought it out :( You can't just throw away a decade old address even if you get new ones because of the things going there that cannot be changed.
Back in the day it was revolutionary and a good product, much like Gmail is now. In 10 years time it could well be Gmail that is the lumbering crap filled old beast.
Beep beep.
obvious pun (subject)
On another note, maybe this is a microsoft ploy to make windows safer? (IE less outlook users)
lol: You see no door there!
IMHO this is where MS would like to go. Having a hosted web service model gives a dependable revenue stream that makes the Wall Street analysts salivate. Knowing that you have X numbers of users paying Y amount/month is a reliable predictor of future revenue.
This also allows MS not to worry about license revenue and allows them to control the spitgot. If you can turn a service off or on then you put a serious clamp on the pirating of your software.
The company I work for is in the final stages of turning off the licensed customers. The code line is deadended and will be eliminated in the future years. The only way to get our service will be to pay a user fee for out hosted web service.
This is great for the company because we now control updates, releases, etc. and don't need the customers permission. We turn on access for new users and when the users get to a certain number we add a few more machines to the server farm. We use the same open source applications to provide the web servers and leverage the databases to handle many clients on the single license.
Over time we have seen the 'cost per transaction' reduce and the 'cost per deployment' reduce but we still charge the same amount. This increases the margins and thereby increases our profitability.
MS would love to get to the same place.
Errr, I don't think Mad Max is the Palm carrying type?
Oh, not THAT road warrior.
Regardless of the merit (or lack thereof) of the Outlook mail client (note that this is the full outlook client, not outlook express), this could be really really big in the small/med business world.
Exchange server is pretty expensive to set up and maintain for the average small business, but integrated, shared calendaring/scheduling/contacts/etc. in the familiar Outlook interface is a nice feature for most businesses with more than a few employees.
The roadwarrior aspect is quite nice too. If the office person can get online and add/edit appointments for the travelling person's contacts and calendar, then that's the shiz, as far as many of my clients are concerned.
I am not sure how much of exchange's functionality they will be selling with this, but if its essentially Exchange connectivity for 60 bucks a year per seat, I can think of several clients I have that will be immediately interested.
disclaimer: I support Windows, Linux and Novell, pretty much in that order of volume. I am not married to Microsoft, but not a basher either. I have over a dozen Linux boxes in the field, in active use at my clients.
Styrofoam IS biodegradable, you're just impatient!
I don't mean open source as in "we develop, they get the profit", I mean open source as in "we develop, we get to use for free". More like a hobby sort of thing that people do for the fun of it- which infuriates companies by offering a similar product for free.
Hi Melted... I'm sarcasm. Nice to meet you.
, or they don't know about the alternatives
Alternatives? What alternatives?
The only other alternative I've ever seen on my desktop was this AOL link, and they charge something list $24.95 a month!
It's funny, laugh
LongTail SSH Brute Force analysis tool is here!
But the long term consequences is a fundamentalist Christian theocracy. In his speech, he said God will help our economy and make us richer. I believe in God but he has a universe tor run, people.
Kick ass.
Now I can pay a yearly fee to Microsoft get the viruses that I am paying a yearly fee to Symantec to get rid of.
the service at pobox.com can be used to redirect an email address to a new service provider
webhosting.yahoo.com gets you webspace and multiple very large POP3 email accounts for much less than $59 -- it's nice to clean the spam on the yahoo internet mail interface and then occasionally download via POP3 to Outlook
And Slashmail's offering is better than Microsoft's Outlook Live in many ways:
Software sucks. Open Source sucks less.
Course, why not
Anyway a secondary Gnail account would be useful for mailing lists and things like that. The Spam filter works really nice as you know. But of course, youre free to use whatever you want
Regards
Microsoft has talked for some time about having not just Office, but the whole of Windows as a subscription service. My guess would be that this is a trial run, which (if it does well) would lead them to moving all their product lines into such a model.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Ballmer and co. have stated many a time that software-as-a-service is their ultimate objective. Tiny steps in that direction eventually will get them there.
Hopefully, everyone will be using Mac minis by then and Outlook will be a thing of the past. And I can drive my flying car to Venus for the weekend! w00t!
You claim that Outlook is not in fact bundled with a monopoly OS. Tell that to anybody who has tried to purchase a PC from Dell and other OEMs that include a copy of Microsoft Office with each Windows XP Pro-preloaded PC they sell, AFAIK offering no opportunity to substitute Lotus SmartSuite, WordPerfect Office, StarOffice, or any other suite. (Dell loads Windows XP Home PCs with Microsoft Works Suite, which includes Microsoft Word.)
I just realized that you can already use Outlook to access your Hotmail account. So what is the benefit here? Is it the 2GB limit? I thought Hotmail already upped their free limit to 2GB. I'm a little confused as to the target audience. Unless they are trying to get people to use Outlook who don't currently use it, that would make sense I guess.
Sadly, that's not always true. Many people used in the banks I've worked in. Even when they had Outlook, or could have downloaded Thunderbird, they chose Outlook Express. Why? Because they clicked the Check Mail button in IE. As far as charging 60 bucks a year for Outlook, I simply don't see it.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
I can't see many users paying for this service. Most Hotmail users use it because it is free, or they don't know about the alternatives.
I know a lot of people who use Hotmail and Yahoo services simply for the convenience of having one email address. People hate switching email addresses every time they switch ISP's.
Most people still use hotmail cause it's been around for ages and it's a pain to switch to another address.
And to tell the truth there is very little spam on hotmail these days and it works fine for what it is. A few years ago I was getting around 20 spams a day, now it's not even 20 a month!
If I had created the world I wouldn't have messed about with butterflies and daffodils. I would have started with lasers
This basically allows non-big-corp users to gain access to their email from anywhere, using a standard client, 100% of the functionality of that client, without having to fork over thousands of dollars for exchange.
Microsoft isn't the only company that provides this. Pay for any e-mail provider that supports IMAP, such as SpamCop.net, and you can get the same thing, allowing for offline reading of e-mail through any standards-based MUA such as Mozilla T-bird. Or does this Outlook+Hotmail combination add the features of Outlook that aren't in Outlook Express?
What people are paying for is IMAP access to their webmail. I would pay for IMAP access to my yahoo account. I have a 2GB Yahoo account, but it is VERY clunky to access this through the web interface. I do not want to POP3 this information to a local computer (even with 'leave on server'), but just access it via IMAP in my client of choice. Forget Outlook, I think people like Yahoo, Gmail, etc. should offer IMAP access to their service. This would be similar to accessing Netscape.net account with the Netscape client, and Hotmail.com through the Outlook Express client (and now Hotmail.com through Outlook), but work with ANY client on ANY platform. For me, that would rock, and I would pay for it.
Some settling may occur during posting.
I understand MS is probably going after the average joe, but how can someone justify paying more than the cost of their internet service for this?
MS are simply trying to make up for having a crappy, non-networked platform and trying to rip off their users at the same time.
I can't see many users paying for this service.
Heh. Why not? They pay what, $300 for winblows xp? Pick a product, any product by Microsoft, and look at the price. It's overpriced and underdeveloped and people still pay it because they're hopelessly enslaved to the evil empire. Some software from other companies aren't much better ($700 photoshop, anyone?). However, despite my generally low opinion of the overall intelligence of the human race, I could see people paying for this for another reason. Accessibility. Depending on what kind of business you're running, you may not have an office as such. If Microsoft makes the interface and the software web-based, that would be a huge advantage for people that are on the move constantly but still need access to their email and/or some of the features that the software can provide. I have my own misgivings about Microsoft (as if you couldn't tell) but I think that this is a good move for them and it will generate some decent revenue. Look for this to start a trend in online software.
Geez, do you know how many Gmail accounts you can get on eBay for 60 bucks?
(ONE time fee!) you can get an entire OS and Kontact
If they are able to charge for it, it must be better than the alternatives.
_____________________________
My Blog Get a free ipod!
So, charge people to access hotmail from outlook. Well, more power to MS. If you are certifiably retarded enough to pay for this, then they absolutley deserve your money. They should name the service Outlook:4ID10T5.
it's too hard to fully un-install outlook ... i useually just give up.
you can't have everything, where would you put it?
Outlook is dead.
I've looked into getting a hosted Exchange account, and the cheapest out there was $20/month with ~$60 setup fees, that adds up to $300 for the first year. MS is giving you the full Exchange capabilities (Calendar, Public Folders, Contacts, Outlook Web Access, etc.) for $60/year. This will definitely generate a lot of cash for MS from one-person and small businesses.
Google should hook up with Novell and offer an Exchange replacement service for all the corporate customers out there who refuse to drop Outlook.
Open Office does not have a PIM in it last I used it (ver 1.1). Does it now?
I've read the article and all the posts, and I still can't figure out what MS is trying to achieve. Correct me if I'm wrong, but here is my summation of the service:
You pay 60 dollars per year (5 bucks a month).
You get 2 gigs of online storage.
You can send 20mb attachments.
You get MS Outlook Live.
The online storage and attachment size are legitimate services, (which will also be offered at 20/year without the Outlook live). But MS Outlook is (at least it was) a product, not a service. It is a tool that can be used to access a service, but it's not the service itself. Analogously, a telephone is a tool to use one's telephone service, but we don't pay yearly subscriptions for the phones themselves.
Yes, there are women on Slashdot. Deal with it.
IMHO, the home computer market is where this has the least chance of success.
For business, they may be able to justify spending incremental subscription costs for software: it may make financial sense for them to do so.
But the home user? This is a person that has never had to be subjected to using software that demands a monthly bill to be paid like your telephone, utilities, and cable. I would guess that the vast majority of MS Office (therefore, Outlook) users in home environments either pirated their copy (no cost), or it was included with their computer when they purchased it (perceived no cost). I predict strong resistance to this from the home market.
MS won't be able to drop the local Office apps for this reason. They need to not only keep their paying customers (that want control over their own systems) happy, but also need to keep the home users on the MS teat.
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
I've looked into getting a hosted Exchange account
Now why the fuck would you want to do that?
We used to. Way back a long time ago when Bell was a monopoly over the phone system, Bell owned all phones and we merely rented them. There were no other options. You could not buy a third party phone and install it yourself. In fact, you paid extra to have multiple phones even on the same line!
Considering that Microsoft is our era's new monopoly, it's apparent that it is merely asserting itself as a monopoly should.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
...soon I won't have to remove it forcibly from every &@#$ing windows install I do?
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
$60 per year?
Yeah right, and I got a CD I can sell you for $1.99 that comes with a secure OS, a thousand pre-installed programs, and the support of a community bound by a noble cause...
No, no. Wait, I got that backwards, let me start over.
Man, I want some of what ever Ballmer is smokin'.
I ended up going with the .mac service and am very satisfied, it was $69 for the first year, $99 after that. Looks like Microsoft is copying Apple yet again.
I bought MS Office '97 for $5 on educational discount. I've been using it ever since. So, if they move their decimal two places to the left, that would worthwhile to me.
ShoutingMan.com
This is a way to leverage their experience doing Exchange server email systems in the non-corporate space. They'll never sell anything like an exchange server to individuals on its own, but they MAY be able to do so if they provide the exchange part of the equation (a la Hotmail).
Its actually smart if you get down to it. Most people would love to have IMAP or something like it, but lack anything close to the technical where with all to get it done. This just makes it easy by using Hotmail and MS to be the "IT dept." to the masses. Think about it like Exchange ASP or something.
My sister is a good example here... I recently set her up witH IMAP across a Treo (running Chatter), her home PC (using Thunderbird, which is a POS IMHO), and my web server. She's ecstatic, and she is literally giddy over being able to synchronize all her email so easily.
This just ups the ante... watch for Google and/or Yahoo to start integrating more fully with IMAP offerings.
-rt
Google is in the early lead with a great mail service. Gmail rocks.
Now they need to add simple groupware. And maybe charge for that service. Only charge a little and devalue Microsofts offering while boosting their own. Leverage their servers, search, and gmail just like Gates would.
I'll pay a few bucks a month for a calendar / contact manager addition to Gmail. I won't ever buy the MSFT offering because it does not work well with my existing solution.
(I've got 4 invites by the way. Copy a line of content from http://www.pdxradiospots.com, paste into the mail you send to the contact address you find there and the first 4 will get invites today!)
Blogging because I can...
I hope this does not break Hotway. Which also worked with Lycos and Spray and even worked within Cygwin.
To me, this is more evidence that the less you have to do with non-free jerks like M$, the less pain you will suffer. It's not enough that they loaded Hotmail with four or six frames of blinking adverts. It's not enough that they put tagline adverts into your mail. Confronted with superior competition from Google, M$ responds by removing features.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
2 gigs of storage would be pretty nice. I wonder if there will be an option to let third persons download from your storage. I also wonder if Microsoft would mind if I kept all my warez ISOs on it?
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Hi, sarcasm. You're funny.
Last time I checked you could use Mac OSes or Linux or Unix or any number of devices to send/recieve email and manage contacts. How does MS have a monopoly on this?
This is not la science de les rockets.
Read Torvalds book "Just for Fun" - and substitute "greedy farmer" and "water supply" with "greedy gates" and "shite software". Flush please.
When, sometimes your sky is Red. and often it's Blue, but mostly it's expensive, polouted and full of hotair, you need to find another sky. The air is free.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
irony
irony (plural ironies)
noun
1. humor based on opposites: a type of humor based on using words to suggest the opposite of their literal meaning.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
I don't think people here are fully understanding Microsoft's subscription strategy. Besides plain ol' Office they now sell the "Office System." They sell corporations servers which are supposed to help in collaboration of the client-only Office apps. So you pay for the server, and for the client app to work you need to buy the latest version of Office. Upgrading your servers for a new feature? Well you also need to buy the latest version of Office to communicate with the server. I think the major motivation of this Outlook subscription is to get smaller customers into a subscription service. Then it's a lot easier to sell these expensive Office servers to them.
Plus later they'll say you need a newer version of Outlook to use new HotMail features. Most people get Outlook with Office instead of a separate purchase, so they're likely to not know Outlook is offered separate and upgrade all of Office.
Developers: We can use your help.
Timmy said it first.
My free hotmail account timmyshow@hotmail.com
is spam proof!
Oh, yeah? Well, I've memorized 36 digits of pi!
3.14159265358979323846264338327950288...
Wait, is 50 bigger than 36? Ooops. Never mind. Pretend I didn't say a thing.^-^
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
It's amazing how it takes a little nudge by Google's Gmail with 1gig of storage to prompt M$ to change HM to 250 megs. That's 750 Megs too little, a lot too late for me - since my HM account upped to that about a month after I slowed down my use of it. Now they think I might possibly want to PAY to use HM on steroids? They actually think that's a realistic proposition? Bottom line is Gmail is 1000 times better, and infinitely freeer than a Pay-for-use Outlook. (or a free one for that matter). If only Outlook was more like Gmail... it'd be fun to use.
When MSFT first bought HotMail they tried to convert the whole network from BSD to Windows+Exchange and whole thing failed miserably. The HotMail system was simply too big for Exchange to handle because it doesn't scale well. So I know for a fact they stuck with BSD.
But it's been a couple of years. I haven't heard of any progress being made for HotMail to move off BSD. So I'm not so sure you're connecting to an Exchange server when you use this Outlook subscription with HotMail. The users may assume they are, but it might not be the case.
Developers: We can use your help.
Small businesses are the market here. A small business doesn't want to have to pay for a firewall, router, DNS server, spam filter, virus protection, a windows server, Exchange Server license, backup equipment, backup schedules and testing, and an administrator to put it all together, when you can pay $6/mo/user to have someone else do all the pain for you.
It's a bargain dude.
give me all your money to read your free email wuaaaggghhhh! wuaghhhhhh! wuagghhhhh!
I was thinking the same thing, only the Microsoft service does not give you web space but they do give you calendaring - sort of outlook scheduling for the masses, I think.
.Mac stuff.
It does sound really steep though.
I would say you get a good value with
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Most Hotmail users use it because it is free, or they don't know about the alternatives.
Well, AFAIK, you need a hotmail account in order to use MSN Messenger now.
I seem to recall that one of the main reasons MS discontinued the ability to do much of these functions through Outlook Express in the first place was because spammers were using scripts to automate their spam through OE and Hotmail. I imagine that the spammers are likely to be interested in this service as they would likely make more than enough back to cover the cost in order to automate bulk emailing through Hotmail. Of course they'll have to slightly tweak their code to use Outlook instead of Outlook Express, but again, just another minor investment on their part. However, if MS only allows you to pay for a whole year as opposed to a monthly charge, and actually cancels the accounts of these abusers, then there's a chance the spammers might not find it so profitable.
Sorry to be clueless, but is Open Office able to open, edit and save in .doc and .xls formats? That's the key in my opinion. These formats are the standard, for better or worse.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
Microsoft Works Suite doesn't include Microsoft Outlook.
And it doesn't come with the kind of PC that gets bundled with Windows XP Home Edition. Microsoft Works Suite : Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition :: Microsoft Office : Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
Neither does WordPerfect, which I see as the default option on the cheapest Dell PCs.
The cheapest Dell PCs include Windows XP Home Edition. My comment was limited to those PCs that include Windows XP Professional, not Windows XP Home Edition.
Furthermore, Dell has no monopoly.
Don't HP and Gateway bundle Microsoft Office with business PCs as well?
This isn't a dumb idea at all. I'm paying $120 a year for an outsourced Exchange account right now. It's a far more robust mail account then a standard POP or IMAP internet based mail account like yahoo. I have my calendar, contacts, public folders, all sharable with others in my company. I know that there's other programs at there do do this, but none that integrate them so well together that also integrates with so many other applications and appliances (e.g., my cell phone, organizational software, etc.)
The only people this hurts are the correct Exchange Hosters who are charging anywhere fro $8 to $15 per month per account.
Why get something for free (open office comes to mind) when you can pay Microsoft for the same service!
Why didn't I think of that?
Will all of you people breathing my patent-pending air send me royalities? I don't want to have to call my wolves... err I mean lawyers.
And they said zombies weren't real!
Microsoft has trialled subscriptions services in the past.
Here's a story I wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald trumpting the intial success of the project in Australia and a couple of other markets: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/04/20/10192332 87444.html
The trial finished a Microsoft dropped the program, again I wrote about this for the Sydney Morning Herald and the Melbourne Age: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/11/19/10374 90107674.html
Of course, these weren't online subscriptions.
I'd pay at least $5/month to NOT have to use Outlook!
The problem for web-based email services is this: the customer acquisition strategy of all web-based email clients is the offer of "Free" service. Hotmail grew 300 million users or so before being acquired by MSFT (and before any sort of user-based revenue streams). How did they grow so big? Easy, because the service was free.
As email services transition to 'paid-for' services, recognize that the transition to $-based services can never represent a 100% changeover. There will always be an upsell for "enhanced service". (e.g.: "10 more Megs for $20"). Why? Because getting rid of "Free" means losing both new and existing users.
And there's the rub. There will *always* be another company willing to provide some of those additional paid-for features for "Free" in order to steal users. Gmail is a perfect example. Gmail gives away for free what MSFT is charging for. Likewise, someone further down the line will attempt to lure users away from Gmail with a similar "free vs. upsell" competition.
Its a critical mass / tipping-point problem. Simply underselling your competitor *won't* work. The rate of transition from their service to yours simply won't be fast enough to justify the expense of the revenue structure. You'll ultimately lose users to competitors before your service is populated. Usage patterns already show that "Free" is the only user acquisition strategy that works rapidly enough (or at all effectively). Look at the OS world: A cheaper OS won't lure enough users away from a dominant platform to achieve a self-sustaining userbase. A "Free" one will. In order to achieve the tipping-point of customer-loyalty to new-product-adoption, "Free" is the only thing that has ever worked.
MSFT is hoping their desktop monopoly can help them break of the "Free" cycle.
It won't.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
thanks for the invite :)
Every fresh Windows installation I've seen in the past few years always included Outlook Express, and it was always installed by default from the OS media. Are you saying that Outlook Express will not be tied to Hotmail? If that is the initial case, then it won't be for long.
Even if that remained true in the long run, there is actually a second argument to be made: that MS-Office has a monopoly in the office suite business, and that MS is using that monopoly to favor Hotmail.
The only question then would be whether MS-Office does indeed constitute a monopoly product; and that ought to be a fairly short discussion.
just download Foxmail. It's an email client that comes with an excellent mail gateway. throw away the foxmail email client, and just run the gateway. I keep mine running all the time, and through it, I *already* use Outlook 2003 to check my hotmail and yahoo accounts.
Why pay for a subscription, when I already have the full service at no extra cost?
This proves (to me at least) that Bill is seriously wondering where his next billion is coming from 'cuz it sure as heck isn't going to come from Hotmail or Office. Charge money? Oh, please.
It's all history, man. -anon
You can find hosted exchange (includes Outlook 2003) for less than $10 a month. Check out eoutlook.com or just google hosted exchange.
Outlook Express is the base level mail client that comes free with windows, and Outlook is the base level mail client that comes with MS Office. If people wish to pay for a mail client I suspect they should get something better that is actually supported by the vendor. People who believe Outlook is supported by the vendor have never had to recover corrupt mail databases - you have to resort to shareware for that.
Why would you want any of this? Check out www.plaxo.com. It syncs, lets me check out my schedule on the web, great networking tool, and its free... FREE...
Outlook Express is a mediocre e-mail client. It costs $0 with Windows. It supports Hotmail if you pay for a special Hotmail Super Plus Foo account; Hotmail-OE integration used to be free but Microsoft killed that recently.
Outlook is a mediocre e-mail client with a contact manager, task list, notes facility, and calendar. When coupled with an Exchange server, Outlook makes for an excellent groupware tool. It costs about $110 per seat, plus the cost of Windows, when purchased by itself. It can also integrate with Hotmail if you pay money for Hotmail Plus Super Deluxe Monkey Edition.
Hope this helps.
For more information, click here.
While Detroit has already sold their first 2006 Dodge Charger
drops an "OUTLOOK 2003" icon on desktops with OutlookLive for 2005
I use 1&1 for linux hosting. They offer cheap Exchange hosting. Click on the Exchange link under Mail on the left side of this page. I think it's exactly what you're looking for.
I'm adamently against the use of Exchange and Outlook. But if you're going to dance with the devil, 1&1 seems to be a great company.
Developers: We can use your help.
I've had a hotmail address for about 10 years now, but due to better options being out there, and it being on spam lists I've been trying to move away from it.
The problem is, every website insits you sign up, and every website i've signed up to is with my hotmail address.
I thought i found a solution by getting a fastmail address, as they have the great ability to be able to import my hotmail and other accounts into the one inbox... but now microsoft are stopping free pop access to hotmail, so i'm going to have to go back to hotmail.
Has anyone got any advice on how to move email addesses? Without the hassle?
The very same product that is considered one of the finest growth medias for worms, and phishes is being offered for subscription pricing?
Is this a great country or What!
No doubt, this is the tip of the iceberg--Microsoft would be crazy not to move the subscription market forward. What with yearly "upgrades" by most companies, that's what we already have in most areas.
But what many are missing is the vision I really look for: I want an accessible-anywhere, secure, feature-rich "desktop" environment that I can access from ANY 'net-connected computer.
I would like to "log in" and have "My Desktop" available anywhere on any computer. I can partially achieve this using Remote Desktop or an app like Remotely Anywhere, but then I have to host "My Computer" myself.
No, I'm not talking high-end gaming capability, just "My Tools" available in "My Configuration" presented in "My format" tailored to "My Needs." "Office" tools, communications tools, financial tools, etc. Everything that I would typically setup on my home computer, just accessible from anywher ein a secure way. Give me that, and I'll gladly pay for it!
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!