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Communications Iphone Microsoft Apple News

Hotmail Mobile Usage Spikes Thanks To Apple iOS 5 122

Posted by samzenpus from the strange-bedfellows dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft is proud to announce that mobile usage of its Hotmail service has exploded in the past few weeks, and guess who is to thank? Apple! More than 2 million Apple users linked their Hotmail accounts to their iPhones and iPads since the launch of iOS 5."
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Hotmail Mobile Usage Spikes Thanks To Apple iOS 5 More

Hotmail Mobile Usage Spikes Thanks To Apple iOS 5

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  • Apple is losing it's hold (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    If I were a CEO in software company, I'd never give microsoft anything.

    • Re:Apple is losing it's hold (Score:4, Interesting)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @08:21AM (#37946148)

      When dealing with companies you get into these odd relationships.
      You are competing with them but their success is your success too. The trick that was learned is to mentally divide a company into different parts.
      For Apple.
      Microsofts OS is their biggest competition for their OSs (OS X/iOS). However Microsoft Office for the Mac is a big push to sell more Macs and a good seller for Microsoft, at the same time there are a little competitive with Apples Office like products, however Apple hasn't been hammering these too much they are selling them more as a poor mans office.
      Then you have the free services. Hotmail, Bing, iCloud, Assure.... These are low revenue services that make sense for compatibility with other products. Choosing Hotmail, over Google Mail, over iCloud isn't that big of a deal. Because they are free people can have all of them. But if your device doesn't support it then you are at a disadvantage. Right now Microsoft in the mobile market has more to gain from getting iPhone hotmail users, then apple has to gain from getting windows mobile iCloud users.

    • Neither would I, but now Apple views google as an emerging threat and is looking for a detente.

    • If not for Microsoft's 5 billion dollar investment in Apple in1997, Apple would probably not exist today. Just saying...

      • Re:Apple is losing it's hold (Score:5, Insightful)

        by oudzeeman ( 684485 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @12:24PM (#37948864)

        $150 million, not $5 billion. Microsoft bought 150 million dollars worth of non-voting shares as part of a patent licensing agreement, and also agreed to produce MS Office for OS X for at least 5 years (this was the important part, since many big software vendors had not yet committed to port their code to the new OS), and Internet explorer would be bundled as the default browser for 5 years (I think it was 5 years).

        Apple was a multi-billion dollar company with 1.2 billion in cash at the time. It was in trouble financially, but it probably could have survived without that $150 million.

    • >> If I were a CEO in software company, I'd never give microsoft anything.

      They all say that, then microsoft give them a million and they sign over exclusive rights to Call of Duty.

    • Not to mention the only reason that Apple is even competitive today is because the huge influx of cash FROM MICROSOFT that kept them afloat. Oh, how people soon forget.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Elbart ( 1233584 )
      A smart man once said:

      We have to let go of this notion that for Apple to win, Microsoft has to lose.

  • RIP please? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Ooki ( 1576979 )
    This is bad news, hotmail is a service that should be allowed to die...

    • Re:RIP please? (Score:5, Informative)

      by skovnymfe ( 1671822 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @05:52AM (#37945518)
      It's actually quite good these days. You should try giving it a second chance.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Chrisq ( 894406 )

        It's actually quite good these days. You should try giving it a second chance.

        If there weren't other good options I might do.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by dintech ( 998802 )

          I've had the same hotmail account for more than 10 years and never had a problem with spam. Using hotmail via iphone is even better since it excludes all the superfluous msn crap you see when you log in to the web client.

          • Same here, pretty much. While the service has been fine, recently I've really begun to hate the interface in the web client. Not only does it try and push it's home-page as some kind of social media site, it hides some of it's most important features (like folder redirection) behind an arcane wall of constantly changing crap, and I've not been able to find that particular function for a few months now.

            On the plus side, it's spam filter is actually rather good.

            • If by folder redirection you mean 'sending an email to a folder different than the inbox' they called that 'sweep' (probably to help lay persons) and it's in the main menu bar inbetween junk and mark as.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Dan541 ( 1032000 )

            You never see spam because the filter is so strict it also blocks allot of legitimate mail.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dintech ( 998802 )

              I think this is almost certainly true, I'm sure there are certain small online stores and so in which get caught by the dragnet. I can't say I've ever been in a situation where I expected a mail and didn't receive it however.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by b0bby ( 201198 )

            Yeah, I have an ancient account too; I mostly use it with Thunderbird and it's fine. I use it for stuff I don't quite trust, so you'd think it would be full of spam, but it's really not bad, and I haven't noticed many (if any) false positives.

          • One of the perks of being an M$ astroturfer is never having a problem with spam on Windoze Dead. M$ will ensure their astroturfers, those such as yourself, won't see any problems with M$ junk so they won't go to any free services that won't tie you into anything.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dintech ( 998802 )

              You created the FriendofTwitter slashdot account just for that? I'm not sure whether I should feel flattered or scared...

              Sorry for touching your naughty button. Please don't kill me.

          • I've had the same hotmail account for more than 10 years and never had a problem with spam. Using hotmail via iphone is even better since it excludes all the superfluous msn crap you see when you log in to the web client.

            I've been using Hotmail since '97 and have had the same experience.

          • You, as a hotmail-user, may not have had a problem with receiving spam, but many people (me included) had massive problems with spam from hotmail-accounts during the late nineties/early noughts. It's not for nothing that hotmail at some point became synonymous with "dodgy-offer-by-nigerian-royalty-mail". Those were the days before many of us had good hosters/providers with grade-A server-side spam-filtering. At one point I simply stopped bothering, set up a local rule that would automatically move anything

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by dintech ( 998802 )

              I feel your pain, but the thing you have to remember is that hotmail was one of the biggest providers and used by internet un-savvy folks en masse. This was all pre captcha days. It was thus a natural target for 419'ers and spam-bots. The nature of spam has changed too. Do you remember all that image spam stuff? Or the poem spam? That came from everywhere. It's been a long time since I saw P E N ISS EN LARGME NT PILLLSSSS in a subject heading at work...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by BenoitRen ( 998927 )

        It still does dumb user agent sniffing and throws tons of bad JavaScript at you. Its AJAXy interface breaks tabbed browsing.

        As for the service itself, e-mail messages that aren't sent using Hotmail take a long time to arrive.

        Quite good my ass.

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          define "long time" please. Because for me, if I say hit a "I forgot my password" button on a site and it emails to my hotmail account, it's abnormal to take more than 2 or 3 seconds for a notification to pop up stating I've just received an email from that site. I guess though that if 2 or 3 seconds is a long time by your definition, then you'd be correct. Average time from a gmail account, I honestly don't know, but I don't think I've ever waited more than a minute from the time somebody said they sent me

          • You ask me for clarification but post as Anonymous Coward? Okay...

            define "long time" please.

            Hours, sometimes even a day.

            As for breaking tabbed browsing and bad javascript, what the hell browser are you using, because I've never had any of those issues in firefox or IE or chrome, and on my phone, never had those issues in the android browser.

            Try middle-clicking on messages in your inbox sometime, or on some button. It just reloads the inbox, if memory serves.

            As for bad JavaScript, it's mostly related to du

        • It still does dumb user agent sniffing and throws tons of bad JavaScript at you. Its AJAXy interface breaks tabbed browsing.

          As for the service itself, e-mail messages that aren't sent using Hotmail take a long time to arrive.

          Quite good my ass.

          20 seconds is too long for you?

        • It still does dumb user agent sniffing and throws tons of bad JavaScript at you. Its AJAXy interface breaks tabbed browsing.

          You have to admit though that this was stolen from GMail, which did it first - and still does (just checked, middle-click-for-new-tab doesn't work in message list in GMail).

    • Re:RIP please? (Score:5, Funny)

      by Ihmhi ( 1206036 ) <i_have_mental_health_issues@yahoo.com> on Friday November 04, 2011 @05:58AM (#37945548)

      Don't you mean Windows Bing Livemail Yahoo Hot 2010 Professional Edition?

  • Hotmail, is that still around? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Compaqt ( 1758360 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @05:52AM (#37945514) Homepage

    I thought it had relocated to the Internet Archive [archive.org], along with MySpace, Friendster, and GeoCities.

    Or is it waiting for Yahoo, and they'll go together?

    • Re:Hotmail, is that still around? (Score:5, Informative)

      by ad0gg ( 594412 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @06:54AM (#37945758)
      They are the largest web email provider out there followed by yahoo.
      • It looks like Hotmail follows Yahoo! and possibly Gmail based on this link [amplifymar...ggroup.com].

      • But are they the largest provider of email to active accounts?

        I have a hotmail account. Statistically it gets used more than any other account I have getting an average of about 45 emails per day, rather than my main account on my domain which sits at about 3-5. I log in every 2 months after I sign up to some dodgy site to pull the authentication link out of the irreconcilable spam that is my hotmail account, I delete everything, and then don't touch it again for 2 months while it continues to "provide me e

    • I'm surprised, too. I haven't seen a Hotmail email addy in, um well, a long time. Never used it, so I have nothing against it, just the bad stuff I heard from others. Then that chatter died down, so I figured it went kaput.

    • I thought it had relocated to the Internet Archive [archive.org], along with MySpace, Friendster, and GeoCities.

      Or is it waiting for Yahoo, and they'll go together?

      I have GMail, Yahoo! and AOL (actually, the 3rd is something I inherited as a result of netscape.net - remember that? - going away) accounts. Even had a Hotmail account at one time, which I stopped using.

      As long as any service allows me to set it up w/ an email client of my choice, be it KMail, Thunderbird, Windows Mail, or whatever, I am happy. Unfortunately, Yahoo! forces me to use my browser, unless I sign up for a paid service. The others don't try to be such pricks. Although one thing I was plea

  • Hotmail is still around? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Learn something new every day

    • I had a Hotmail account in the 90s, since before MS took it over. Wasn't it basically the first free webmail?

      But alas, I lost my account after MS decided that not logging in for 30 days meant you lose the account. Stupid policy, and I lost all my mail up to that point. Yes, it's a free service, but to cut you off for NOT using it, and making you lose your data? Fuck MS, that is actually the worst thing MS has done to me thus far and I still hate them for it.

      The best part is that I think that address might s

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        But alas, I lost my account after MS decided that not logging in for 30 days meant you lose the account. Stupid policy, and I lost all my mail up to that point. Yes, it's a free service, but to cut you off for NOT using it, and making you lose your data? Fuck MS, that is actually the worst thing MS has done to me thus far and I still hate them for it.

        It's currently 90 days and Google has the same type of policy. It's unfortunate that you didn't read / understand the TOS.

        • I just logged in after reading this for the first time in about 2 years judging by the dates of the spam in my inbox. 30 pages of noise, 0 signal

        • Late reply, sorry.

          But you have to remember that it was the '90s, when people didn't have smartphones or laptops with wifi to log in from anywhere.

          Also, I was in high school, so checking in to webmail was not high on my priority list, especially when my nerd friends and I did most of our chatting on IRC or ICQ, and my non-nerd friends didn't use email.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Oh, you didn't read the e-mail they sent to warn you?

    • It must suck being blind.

  • If you are wondering why (Score:5, Informative)

    by will_die ( 586523 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @05:54AM (#37945530) Homepage
    Looking down a few links the reason for the increase is that iOS 5 added support for hotmail to the built in email program.

    • Re:If you are wondering why (Score:5, Informative)

      by jonbryce ( 703250 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @05:57AM (#37945540) Homepage

      It already supported it. You set it up as an exchange account with the server m.hotmail.com. What is new is that you can now select hotmail as the option and it does it for you. Any existing exchange accounts configured to use the hotmail server now have the hotmail icon rather than the exchange one.

    • Only explains the spike.

      The question is not why the spike, the question is why people would still deliberately subject themselves and their mail to Microsoft when they have plenty of options.

      (I know, I know, some people acquire a taste for bondage. And, of course, there is now the question looming of why people would subject themselves and their data to Apple any more.)

      (Not sure how serious I mean this post to be taken, but I sure wish I could get people to take their blinders off when looking at the comput

      • It'd be interesting to see how many asinine comments like this there would be on slashdot about how horrendous Hotmail is if Microsoft hadn't bought them and people judged it on its own merits, rather than ownership. I haven't used Hotmail since the mid nineties, but plenty of friends do and I haven't heard anything bad about it.
        • Is it judged by its ownership or is the ownership used to explain the results of the judgement?

        • Speaking as someone who had a hotmail account before Microsoft bought them, I can say that changing ownership brought with it changes to the service, and those changes were generally not for the better. I'd like to see what Hotmail would have evolved to if they'd never been bought up by Microsoft.

          • Back in the days of the dotcom bubble I worked for a company that sent a LOT of email (read that as you will). Hotmail was the only major email service that never complained or blocked our servers. I don't know when MS bought them but I doubt they were so lackadaisical just because of the purchase.

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by bberens ( 965711 )
            I suspect it would have evolved into a 404 error.

      • Re:Doesn't explain why. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by gmack ( 197796 ) <gmack@noSpAM.innerfire.net> on Friday November 04, 2011 @07:10AM (#37945828) Homepage Journal

        Email addresses are hard to change. I know a lot of people who still have their email address from 10 years ago and don't want to touch it because that's the email address everyone has and tracking down everyone on the old address would be far too hard.

        I can understand the sentiment because I've had my email address for 14 years now and every once and awhile I get someone I haven't heard from in a few years get in contact with me using the address I gave them years ago.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by Inda ( 580031 )
          There's no need to change it though, you just aquire a new address and have your old mail forwarded.

          These are teh sorts of tips people lap up. Spread them.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by alen ( 225700 )

            and what happens after you don't log in for 30 days and the email provider deletes your address?

          • Hotmail kills your account after 90 days, so you also have to remember to log in once in a while.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Pope ( 17780 )

              Would having a POP program poll the Inbox be sufficient, or do you have to physically go to the Hotmail web site and log in?

              • 'Fraid I don't know. The terms say, "Our reasons for cancellation may include that we stop providing the service in your region or that you breach this contract, fail to sign in to the Windows Live ID network during a 90-day period, or don't pay fees that you owe to us or to our agents." and make no mention of POP. Gmail can definitely get Hotmail via POP, but I don't know what happens if you only use that.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by reiisi ( 1211052 )

                  gmail is fine with straight pop access.

                  But if you want the webmail and pop access to be synced you need to access the webmail somewhat regularly.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by 666999 ( 999666 )

              This is my main problem with the service.

            • Where's everyone getting the 90 day thing? It's 270 days. I believe accessing it over POP/Exchange ActiveSync will count as activity as well.

              • It says 90 in their TOS. I presume you are right about POP/Exchange, but have no way to verify short of trying it - a short search of their website came up dry for me.

        • With Apple pushing their cloud services, making Hotmail an officially supported mail provider could be one step toward a one-click mobileme signup button. One click to copy all of your existing emails, contacts, notes and information to the apple cloud. It would of course also set up a forwarder in Hotmail to your new apple email address while making an auto-reply to anyone sending it to the Hotmail address with the message "I've updated my email, please send all future emails to ...."

        • That's why services like pobox.com [pobox.com] exist. I've had the same email address since 1997, but I've used mutiple ISPs, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Gmail, etc. for my email in that time.

          Whether or not anyone else cares that they can still get ahold of me is a different issue.

        • Email addresses are hard to change. I know a lot of people who still have their email address from 10 years ago and don't want to touch it because that's the email address everyone has and tracking down everyone on the old address would be far too hard.

          That is also why it is dangerous to tie an e-mail to some ISP.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PNutts ( 199112 )

        ...the question is why people would still deliberately subject themselves and their mail to Microsoft when they have plenty of options.

        Subject my *mail* to Microsoft? I honestly don't think it cares. In fact, the guy in the v1@gra ad seems pretty goddamn giddy about it.

      • The answer is simple. They learned it and don't want to change. This is from a web site filled with people who still think the mouse was a bad idea. And we should still be using 80x25 teletype machines.
        Then there is the issue of having to tell everyone they got a new email address etc....

        Many people when they choose what they wanted for email they choose a service that some of their friends or family used. For my parents it was using Yahoo mail. But it could have just as easily been Hotmail or Google. Th

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • 1 in 10 iPhone users use Hotmail (Score:4, Funny)

    by Outtascope ( 972222 ) on Friday November 04, 2011 @06:51AM (#37945746)
    Things are now clear to me. I guess the other 9 are too busy looking for their geocities page to bother with email.
  • see ads telling them how great Windows Phones are and then they'll see coupons making it free to switch phones and get a free upgrade to Microsoft Windows 8. But from what I've heard from kids, they don't need a computer any more and when they do they'll use it at school or their parents.

    LoB

  • Normal with the new Google policy for gmail .... (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I tried to make a new gmail account... you know what? They ask my phone number to "identify" who I am and where I lived.

    Google stomach is so greedy that they don't get enough with your own email search terms to make target advertising... now they want to OWN your own personal information.

    That new policy is annoying enough to make a lot of people moving to hotmail again. So yeah... perhaps mobile is one cause for the hotmail surge... but I guess the other hidden one, is new gmail identify policy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Paladeen ( 8688 )

      The phone number thing in Gmail useful, though. It can prevent permanent hijacking of your account. You can always request a new password and have it sent via SMS to your phone.

      My mom's Hotmail account was hijacked by some clever phishers a while back, and I try as I might, I was unable to get it back under her control. No support from Hotmail, no replies to my queries, nothing.

      So, the phone number request is not without its reasons. But hey, if you don't want Google knowing it, just provide a fake num

  • I've never used hotmail, but know quite a few people who do. I don't think I know anybody in real life who uses Slashdot. There are a lot more real people in the world than Slashdot readers, some of you keep forgetting that. I have a friend who still uses his Juno email account. This despite having broadband wireless w/ Time Warner hooked up in his Brooklyn apartment. Juno. I like the way Google gmail led me to Voice which allows me to make free calls and send/receive txt messages over WiFi. I have a $5 mo
  • Hotmail Mobile Exchange Server: m.hotmail.com Enable SSL User Pass Done.

  • They also recently released an Android app.

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