Neowin reported yesterday, Microsoft revealed the Metro design is now fully implemented on their flagship webmail service adding that name Hotmail will be replaced by Outlook. Windows Phone users however, have been advised to stick with their existing Live or Hotmail addresses, as they will continue to be available to you.
The reason for this is that renaming their existing addresses to use the new @outlook.com suffix will result in the loss of all the other Microsoft services you have configured on the phone. The good thing is that Microsoft is aware of the issue and when going through the renaming process, you will get the following message on screen.
If, like me, you are a Windows Phone user and don’t wish to lose all your apps, music, documents and pictures, I would recommend sticking with your current Hotmail/Live address for your phone and create a new Outlook.com address for future use.
It is possible to create a new Outlook.com address through your Windows Phone while still using your existing Hotmail/Live address for any services you have setup on your phone. Anyone who uses Skydrive will now have an additional 7GB available to them through the Outlook.com account. It has also been noted that creating an Outlook.com alias for your existing account(s) will work, but you cannot send from it using your phone.
Neowin’s John Callaham reported that Outlook.com has received over one million hits in its first six hours, after going live.
It is good to see that Microsoft are attempting to roll out the Metro design to all of its user facing services, and an update to Hotmail will always be welcome, but it’s a shame and a major oversite that Windows Phone users don’t have more options available to them in transitioning their email address(es) to the outlook.com address.
Source and image: ZDNet