The need for email support will be on the rise after it was announced on Wednesday, February 20, that Microsoft was going to combine Hotmail with Outlook, which was introduced last year. This will affect some 300 million users of Hotmail, who will be required to switch to Outlook by the of summer 2013.
The good news is that Hotmail customers will be able to keep their same email address. This is especially important for businesses that have been marketing with their Hotmail address. The biggest difference will be in the interface, which will look and act like Outlook.
Microsoft is hoping this will bring Outlook on the same level as Yahoo! and Google’s Gmail. The key for Microsoft will be for the transition to be as painless as possible.
Apparently, users of Hotmail will have the option of switching now or waiting to do it at a later date. They won’t be able to delay this decision more than six months, when Microsoft will be getting rid of Hotmail for good.
The hope is that this switch will be as painless as possible. But that won’t be the case for everyone with so many customers being affected. Even if only 1 percent of Hotmail users have difficulties with the switch, that still is 3 million people being affected.





