Microsoft starts selling Outlook for Hotmail
Microsoft has launched a subscription version of Outlook that will connect to Hotmail or MSN accounts. For $59 a year (£39.99 in the UK), subscribers get a copy of Outlook 2003 for Subscription Services, 2GB of online storage and the ability to send messages with attachments of up to 20MB.
This is the first time Microsoft has made one of its products available through a downloadable subscription service. It will initially be available in the US, UK and Canada, where it will be available in both English and French.
Currently, users who have Outlook 2003 can import their email to Outlook from MSN or Hotmail. This service used to be free, but because of abuse by spammers, Microsoft said it had to limit the service's availability to Hotmail Plus subscribers ($19.95 annually) or MSN Premium account holders (99.95 annually). The company says that with this announcement it is trying to offer more to those who have Hotmail accounts, but don't have a copy of Office on their machines.
