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Hahaha, what a great feature. If you want decent email client, you have to send all your emails to Microsoft. If you don't want to do this, you're stuck with a shitty desktop client.

Now I understand why the desktop client is shitty in the first place.

Or, you could buy the Outlook desktop app (or use any other desktop email client of your choice).

Or use a Mac, where decent PIM functionality is integrated in the OS.

Maybe there isn't really any strategy and they're just haphazardly jumping from one thing to another.

Hotmail wasn't their idea/product, they bought it as it was. Their Live stuff lived for a few years and with the imminent arrival of Metro/Windows 8 they get more of their products in line.

So it's not like they're changing strategy all the time.

At least it's a serious improvement over Hotmail. I've had an Hotmail address since 1998, happy to finally get a less silly address.

Microsoft bought hotmail - and Microsoft used Hotmail as an example of transitioning from FreeBSD to Windows when it comes to servers, clustering, high availability etc. Lets just say that what they learned from that we're seeing today such as PowerShell etc.

Regarding the branding - it took them long enough to finally consolidate their brands around their two most powerful ones - Windows and Microsoft Office. It never mad any sense establishing new ones because in the long run the money required to get recognition would have been better spent developing services that actually matters. I like the idea of Outlook mail but I'm concerned how disjointed it'll be when it comes to other functionality that Microsoft wishes to provide - will we eventually see a uniform branding and use or Metro? My only fear is that like many cases before we'll see a half-assed attempt that is never followed through completely thus we have a horrible collage thus giving possible customers the view that Microsoft doesn't know what the heck it's doing.

The traditional Yahoo Mail classic, Ajax version introduced half+ decade ago, and the latest default version with new design, all concurrently available? Two major Gmail redesigns bringing dubious improvements? The horror... when will they settle with one, and develop that one?

These are the times when I wish Odin existed to bring swift justice...

It looks very nice in the Windows Phone 7 browser; clean, simple, and fast just like native WP7 apps tend to be.

But then I think, why would I want to use this when the native WP7 email app is even better? I suppose it could be handy for a non Windows smartphone, but again both Android and iOS let you use the native mail clients with Hotmail/Live. So really, what's the point?

I suppose I can see the advantage for people like my fiancée; she uses the Hotmail web interface on her laptop and may find the new look enticing. But I prefer an IMAP email client on a computer, even as nice as the new look is.

Some people don't like to install software locally.
Some people are not allowed to install software locally.
And some people are using a computer that is not their own (internetcafe while travelling).

In all those scenario's a good webmail is a great alternative.

Well I was mostly talking about the mobile version of the webmail client. As I said, some people (like my fiancée) prefer or require a web interface on the desktop.

I'm also wondering what the government office I work for will do. We currently use a Server 2003 hosted web front end to Outlook; it will be interesting to see if the IT department moves us to outlook.com or continues with the more robust (but backend nightmare) of the remote Outlook webapp.

I think you really need both - native email clients and a decent webmail interface too. The first is solved by using standard access methods (IMAP etc.), and the second it looks like they're working on. I won't be holding my breath though - I have had a Hotmail address for 13 years, and since Gmail came along I hardly ever use it. In fact, last time I tried was on a Mac using Safari (whatever version Lion comes with), and I couldn't copy, paste or add attachments. Maybe it was Safari, maybe it was Hotmail. All I know is that Gmail worked perfectly in the same browser.

Still, maybe they'll surprise me and allow IMAP along with a decent web interface that works everywhere too...