Outlook Transition Complete, Hotmail Officially Dead

Microsoft’s Hotmail to Outlook transition was announced mid last year. The plan was to roll out Outlook as a refresh of the Hotmail web browser email client. Already having a program based email client called Microsoft Outlook, having Outlook.com made sense for Microsoft as a means providing an update but with a recognised email brand name. Microsoft’s refresh was born out of a need to revive the reputation of the dying Hotmail client that had suffered from long running spam and account security problems.

Microsoft says that this transition has now been fully completed to all its users meaning Hotmail is now officially a distant memory of the past. 300 million active user accounts have been moved from the Hotmail to the Outlook service and as you can imagine Microsoft found it quite challenging given the 150 million gigabytes of user data they had to preserve. Users can still retain their @hotmail email addresses but these will now operate within the Outlook.com email web client service. Microsoft’s full Outlook.com transition also adds SMTP support and increased SkyDrive integration.

“Our belief is that as people start using the new experience, they will come to love it even more than they loved Hotmail. We are keenly listening to what our customers have to say, and we’ll make the right set of adjustments to ensure that we make the experience as great as it can be” said Microsoft.

What are your thoughts on the end for Hotmail? Are you sad to see it go? Is Outlook.com a better service? What web email client do you use?

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