14 DAY TRIAL // In a little over a week, Microsoft has managed to double the number of Windows Live Hotmail Wave 4 accounts that are now live. If in mid-July 2010, the company had only pushed the next generation of its email service to some 50 million people around the world, the software giant is now saying that it has accelerated the rolling out process. Another 50 million Windows Live Hotmail users have been upgraded to the Wave 4 version of the email service.
“I’m very happy to report that we are picking up the pace of the rollout. In fact, as of this morning, we have over 100 million customers using the new Hotmail, and we’re upgrading even more users as we speak. We expect to upgrade nearly all of our customers within the next week,” revealed Windows Live product manager Mike Schackwitz.
With 100 million Windows Live Hotmail users already upgraded to Wave 4, Microsoft is now left with just a few hundred million more customers. However, everything seems to go well for the software giant, with the company hitting no major problems when rolling out Windows Live Hotmail Wave 4.
“We’ve been busy getting our latest release out to our customers – upgrading server clusters, building the new indexes for conversation threading, and making tweaks to our site metrics and deployment software. This deployment was complex, but it has been one of the smoothest in Hotmail history. We know many of you have been anxious to get the new Hotmail for your own accounts ever since we announced the new features, and we appreciate your patience and your feedback,” Schackwitz said.
Of course, even after all Windows Live Hotmail users will be upgraded to Wave 4, Microsoft will still have work to do. “Once the rollout of the new Hotmail is complete, we’ll start preparing for the release of Exchange ActiveSync for Hotmail, which will allow you to sync your email, calendar, and contacts with your mobile phone. That release will happen later this summer,” Schackwitz promised.
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