pne | Mailbox quotas expand as companies struggle to compete with Gmail (Reply)

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?