Mailbox quotas expand as companies struggle to compete with Gmail

[pne]

It's really rather amusing that when I checked my Hotmail account this morning, I got the standard "Click here to upgrade".

When I clicked on it, I found that there are four levels to choose from:

• "10" - recommended for novice Hotmail users (10 MB of e-mail storage, 3 MB attachment limit) - $19.95/year
• "25" - ideal for sharing digital photos (25 MB of e-mail storage, 10 MB attachment limit) - $29.95/year
• "50" - perfect for storing large files or applications (50 MB of e-mail storage, 15 MB attachment limit) - $39.95/year
• "100" - the ultimate solution for Hotmail super-users (100 MB of e-mail storage, 20 MB attachment limit) - $59.95/year

But what made the whole thing amusing was that there was a Hotmail message in my Inbox telling me that soon, free users can expect to have a 250 MB inbox and a 10 MB attachment limit. So, tell me again why I'd want to pay $59.95 a year for less than free users will be getting soon?

It seems that the only thing I'd be paying for is not having to log in every 30 days. Oh, and the prospect of getting upgraded to Hotmail Plus with 2 GB of storage this summer... but if 100 MB is already sufficient for "Hotmail super-users", who needs that? Or, slightly differently, if they thought anyone would need 250 MB, wouldn't they have provided a service level for that?

It all seems rather ridiculous to me.

Edit: Oh, and why would I be told to "Be patriotic! 4th of July screensavers" while signed in with a Hotmail account with an address on Niue Island, in a browser that uses en_UK as its preferred langauge?

Comments

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

and who cares about the logging in every 30 days anyway? just link it to an outlook or whatever and you're good..

My worry is, They really don't seem to be bothered by gmail.. why?

Oh well, let them fight it out :)

[bicoherent.livejournal.com]

Probably because Hotmail isn't M$'s main source of revenue.

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

And by the looks of things, that's about to drop to zero..

(hehe)

[pne.livejournal.com]

and who cares about the logging in every 30 days anyway?

I do; I've already lost all my mails once through this sort of thing.

just link it to an outlook or whatever and you're good..

I don't run Outlook or Outlook Express at home.

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

eek. That's no good then. I should swapped those around, if you can link to an email program then you don't have to worry about the login every 30 days.

What do you run for emails at home? can you not do the same through that?

Hotmail and external email programs

[pne.livejournal.com]

What do you run for emails at home?

Pegasus Mail, though I'm considering switching to Thunderbird.

can you not do the same through that?

I doubt it - as far as I know, the only program that can get at Hotmail from the outside is Outlook Express, since they're both Microsoft products.

As I understand it, any other program only works if you have a special program which sits between your email program and Hotmail, essentially pretending to be a browser and "reading" your Hotmail messages that way.

Re: Hotmail and external email programs

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

That does sound right. I've seen something like that for thunderbird. Haven't used those tho. Considering making the switch to Thunderbird -cuz I'm a devoted firefox fan now, but unfortunately I tend to be a creature of habit, and it hurts to change :S...

I know, I need to :)

Switching to Thunderbird

[pne.livejournal.com]

unfortunately I tend to be a creature of habit,

Same here.

and it hurts to change :S...

And this, with a vengeance.

What also bothers me is the large volume of email I've accumulated over (I think) three hard drives so far, which I wouldn't want to lose; I'm not sure whether Thunderbird can import Pegasus mailboxes, but I don't want to have to start Pegasus just to get at old mail (e.g. shareware serial numbers or plain correspondence with friends).

I know I could export folders in mbox format from Pegasus, which just about any program could read, but I've got dozens of folders and I'm not about to export them all one-by-one if I can help it.

Re: Switching to Thunderbird

[sovereigna.livejournal.com]

Yah. I know that feeling.

But I also worry about all those emails coming back to bite me in the ass at some stage. Even if it's nothing worse than some sort of legal suit and I have to pay layers thousands of dollars for them to spend hours looking through all my emails for some sort of evidence against me even tho I know there's nothing wrong.

But I'd never get off that easy. My serials aren't quite sharware... :S