Outlook.com: Can ditching Hotmail help fend off Gmail and Yahoo?
| LOS ANGELES
Microsoft聽introduced a new email client Tuesday called Outlook.com, a personal version of its already widely used brand.
Outlook.com is聽Microsoft鈥檚聽latest stab at an email service and essentially replaces Hotmail as the company鈥檚 primary email service.
鈥淲e realized that we needed to take a bold step, break from the past and build you a brand new service from the ground up,鈥澛燤icrosoft聽said in a post. 鈥淣ow, in addition to a desktop application and a service for businesses, we鈥檙e offering Outlook as a personal email service 鈥� Outlook.com.鈥�
Microsoft聽said Outlook.com is a 鈥渕odern email designed for the next billion mailboxes.鈥�
Outlook.com will let users sync their accounts with various social networks, including Facebook and Twitter, as well as Skype eventually.
鈥淚n the Outlook.com inbox, your personal email comes alive with photos of your friends, recent status updates and tweets that your friend has shared with you, the ability to chat and video call,鈥澛燤icrosoft聽said.
The cloud-based new service will sync users鈥� email, contacts and calendar across various devices. Outlook.com also includes free Office Web Apps, so users can open and edit attachments from their inboxes. The Redmond, Wash., company is also addressing the issue of cluttered in-boxes by sorting messages depending on who they鈥檙e from.
The service is free and聽Microsoft聽says it has 鈥渧irtually unlimited storage.鈥�
Hotmail users can easily launch the new client by going into their options menu and clicking 鈥淯pgrade,鈥� according to聽Microsoft. They can also acquire a new 鈥淍outlook.com鈥� email address if they wish.
Users of other email clients, including Gmail and Yahoo, can also use Outlook.com to manage their emails.Microsoft聽says those users can also add an 鈥淍outlook.com鈥� email if they鈥檇 like.
鈥淭his will let you use both services for now, but we think that over time, most people will prefer Outlook.com,鈥� the company said.
