It"s been 15 months since Microsoft announced a major upgrade to Outlook.com, with a refreshed interface and a wide range of new features. Nine months later, in February 2016, it said that the new Outlook.com was finally out of preview, and would begin rolling out to all users worldwide.
Last month, it seemed that all was going well with the process of upgrading everyone to the new version, as Microsoft said that "everyone will be migrated over by the end of summer at the latest". But in the last couple of days, those plans appeared to be in flux, as an error message shown to some users stated that the upgrades would not be completed until "the first half of 2017".
But Microsoft now says that that isn"t actually the case at all, and that the date given in the error message was simply wrong.
A Microsoft spokesperson told ZDNet"s Mary Jo Foley:
"The error message incorrectly stated the date as the first half of 2017; we"re updating this message to reflect the latest migration schedule. We are in the final stages of the Outlook.com migration, with nearly 90% of our active users already migrated. A small percentage of our active users will take additional time to migrate based on certain features they are using like shared calendars."
But while Microsoft maintains that the overwhelming majority of users have already been moved to the new version of its webmail service, it rather conspicuously avoided reiterating its commitment to complete the upgrades by the end of summer. Instead, it"s now leaving things a bit more open-ended, particularly in stating that it "will take additional time" for some users to be migrated.
How much additional time remains unclear, though - but assuming Microsoft"s latest official information is accurate, users won"t have to wait quite as long as 2017.
Source: Mary Jo Foley (ZDNet) via WinBeta