Jake

It doesn't make sense to me.. Why spend the resources on developing and
maintaining two different consumer email products ? Why can't a single
solution be created - call it Microsoft Mail or whatever.. integrate it
with Hotmail/Live mail and give consumers the features that they've been
clamoring for for years.. Heck, build this product and sell it for
$39.95 a copy...

Email is and will continue to move towards the web.. Afterall, MSFT
itself promotes the concept of "the cloud" where data will be stored..
Well .. I want my email, contacts, and calendar events IN THE CLOUD and
I want them accesible from wherever I am. I want a local/client based
app that I can manage and maintain it all with, making contact and
calendar changes locally and having those replicated to the cloud.. .
Afterall I use ONE PC most of the time and I like the performance and
uniqueness of a separate email client as opposed to just another browser
window opened up all the time to hotmail, or some other web based email
service.. I won't use such a browser based email client. I want
reminders to come out of the cloud and hit me like a lightening bolt..
(well maybe not that hard) ,,, I want all this 5 years ago, not 5
years from now..

So far I've not been convinced to upgrade to Vista.. However, a solid,
reliable, easily accesible and managable email/contacts/calendar system
is SO IMPORTANT to me that I would without question upgrade to Vista
Premium for this capability alone. What I see now is a hodgepoge of
features scattered about using different methodologies that's confusing,
unappealing, and downright of little value.. So I'm going to stay with
XP .. I see no reason to switch at this time..


Why is this such a big deal that it hasn't been done yet?
Is it an anti-trust issue?
Is it perhaps a lack of vision?
Is it primarily a profit driven issue where creating such a program may
compete with Outlook with it's exclusive exchange connectivity? I doubt
it..
Is it a lack of ....(deep breath).. i n n o v a t i o n ?


Outlook is a fine product but it is afterall geared more to the business
market and exchange connectibity.. Consumers want this kind of
functionality also though and it's time someone delivers it. The first
imap based email service provider that develops their own local PC based
client that offers all these features will get my business. I'd pay
more than $20 per year for this service and capability.

Microsoft has a golden opportunity to uniquely create and offer a
feature rich email product for consumers with fantastic services and
functionality that I'm sure would be wildly successful and take years
for competitors to catch up with.. Yet they're stumbling along with no
apparent direction whatsoever building multiple consumer products that
come up short in so many essential features but overlap each other with
ordinary and common features ..... creating a huge amount of confusion
and frustration..


I'll keep an eye on Thunderbird but as long as it lacks an integrated
calendar I'm going to sit on the sidelines.. I'll definately get it
when it's ready.