REDMOND, Wash/PRNewswire/ -- Today, Microsoft Corp announced that its highly popular email service, Outlook.com, is ready for primetime.  Since the release of Outlook.com last summer as a preview, millions of people have already actively started using it, making it the world's fastest growing email service, going from 0 to 60 million in just six months. 

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A vision for modern email

Email is a critical part of our everyday lives; email plays a crucial role in how we get things done.  Outlook.com was designed as an email service focused on removing barriers and simply getting people going.  Outlook.com gets people going in four key areas:

• Delivering a beautiful, fresh and intuitive experience on modern browsers and devices
• Keeping people connected with their friends and co-workers across the networks they really use
• Providing a smart and powerful inbox to handle today's email needs including SkyDrive for sharing virtually anything in a single email
• Putting people back in control by prioritizing their privacy

More than 60 million help make the Outlook.com vision come to life

Through the preview, Microsoft has heard a great deal about customers' favorite features, the way they use the product, and how well Outlook.com is delivering on the company's vision for modern email.  For example, Outlook.com lets customers connect to popular social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.  Today, millions of people are using those features to keep up-to-date with friends' contact info updates, photos and Tweets.  Outlook.com is also designed to make it easy to send hundreds of photos and videos in a single message ? all powered by SkyDrive.  After only six months, nearly half of all people using Outlook.com have already used SkyDrive to share more than half a billion photos and Office documents.

A great upgrade for Hotmail customers

Starting today, Microsoft will begin to upgrade every Hotmail user to Outlook.com.  The upgrade is seamless and instant for Hotmail customers; everything from their @hotmail.com email address, password, contacts, etc. will stay the same.   Now Hotmail customers will get all the benefits from the redesigned Outlook.com experience: a fresh and intuitive user interface, lots of new features, and better performance. 

Get started today

Those who would like to get the new benefits of the Outlook.com experience can check it out today at Outlook.com. 

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft