Microsoft Needs You to Switch to Outlook.com

Microsoft unveiled Outlook.com way back in July, a new email product that will eventually house the hundreds of millions of Hotmail users. Thus far, the reception has been largely positive - it sailed past one million sign-ups on its first day, before going on to break the 25 million users mark a fortnight ago, just as it rolled out a native Android app, customizable themes a handful of other features. While the new Outlook offering is certainly a compelling alternative to Gmail - something Microsoft is clearly positioning itself against – the big headache Microsoft faces is convincing people to make the leap over from Hotmail. People simply don't like change.

Thus far, the switch has been entirely optional - users can continue using their Hotmail address on the Outlook.com domain, or they could get in early to nab a new @Outlook.com email address...the perfect time to upgrade from SurferBoy1978. But while Hotmail's days are numbered, it seems that number may still be quite high, and there's no immediate plans to kill it off completely. The Next Web caught up with David Law, Director of Product Management at Outlook.com, to get the lowdown on Outlook. And it seems some Hotmail users will start seeing persuasive messages appear on their Hotmail accounts over this weekend, but the main push will begin next week.