Wednesday, February 22, 2006

Outlook for Outlook Grim

\Advanced webmail clients could rain on the parade of Microsoft's Outlook and other desktop email clients. According to the research firm Radicati Group, the number of email clients will nearly double in the next 5 years, and the strongest growth will be among webmail clients that use Web 2.0 technology to approximate desktop features.

Programs like Mozilla Thunderbird, Scalix 10, and Gordano Messaging Suite will take a bite of Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes. (Lotus Notes is my least favorite application of all time. Two of my previous employers standardized on Notes, and within six months both companies had massive layoffs. Coincidence?)

Microsoft will have to keep pace with all of the Ajax-based up-and-comers. Yes, corporations still want the backend messaging servers for archival and management purposes, but webmail makes so much sense on the client side for mobile workers and reducing the cost of managing users. Perhaps free webmail be the first ubiquitous ad-supported Web 2.0 application.

Posted By Jason Dowdell at 10:53 AM
Permanent Link: Outlook for Outlook Grim | Comments (0)

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