Microsoft has finally released its Web mail service Outlook.com to the general public and has announced the shutting down of its Hotmail brand.
After months of beta testing, Microsoft's Web mail service Outlook has finally been released to the public. However, the company also announced in a blog that it plans to shut down its Hotmail brand and its users will be upgraded to the new Outlook.com webmail service. The company also clarified that it will not force users to change their hotmail email addresses to an outlook.com address and can continue using the hotmail email address on the outlook.com website.
"It's not a light brand decision," said Dharmesh Mehta, senior director of product management for Outlook.com and SkyDrive. "I don't know of any other company that has hundreds of thousands of users and has changed the brand name. But this is something new, an opportunity to set us up for the future."
According to the blog, the change will be put into effect this summer. The blog mentioned that users need not worry about their contacts, email address, messages, password and folders as they will all remain the same.
Microsoft is very optimistic about its new product and officials say they're already experiencing lots of positive feedback from users. According to a statement, the company saw a growth from 0 members to 60 million members in a span of 6 months. A report on USA today also states that a quarter of these new active users have come after abandoning Gmail.
To promote its new webmail service, Microsoft is planning to launch a massive TV and digital advertising campaign.
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