When Microsoft introduced a preview version of a fresh and inventive webmail service it called Outlook.com last August , it was pretty clear that it was telling the world that it intended to start winding down its venerable Hotmail sooner or later . Now it 's official . The company is announcing that Outlook.com is coming out of preview mode and is now officially available worldwide . And so it 's going to start moving more than 300 million Hotmail users over . They 'll be able to keep their Hotmail.com e-mail addresses — or Live.com or MSN.com , if that 's what they 've got — but the Hotmail service and brand will be going away . The transition will be gradual : At first , the Hotmail faithful will get e-mails and other alerts telling them about the switchover . They 'll be able to make the jump immediately , or postpone it . But by the end of the summer , the company intends to have moved all Hotmail users over to Outlook.com . For most of those people , that should be a good thing — or at least , as forced transitions go , not a bad thing . While it 's impossible to underestimate the ferocity with which some folks prefer to clutch onto whatever they 've already got , Outlook.com is a far better service than Hotmail , with a radically decluttered interface and useful new organization tools . ( I also like its interface — which is a variant of the Windows 8 look formerly known as Metro — better than Gmail 's . ) Yet it 's also recognizable as having a family connection to Hotmail , reducing the chances that anyone will be bewildered by it or will lose a favorite feature once the switchover is complete . At the moment , Microsoft says , Outlook.com has 60 million active members , a third of which are Gmail users . ( Presumably some of those are true defectors from Gmail , while others use both Gmail and Outlook.com . ) Once the Hotmail transition is complete , Outlook.com will have hundreds of millions of users , giving it the same sort of massive scale as Gmail ( 425 million users as of June 2012 ) and Yahoo Mail ( 281 million users as of December 2012 ) . And Microsoft seems to be serious about winning over lots more users from Gmail and other services : It 's planning to advertise Outlook.com heavily in all sorts of media . The company has posted a couple of splashy TV spots — both of which , unlike the current Scroogled campaign , are devoted to making people feel good about Outlook.com rather than bad about Gmail . While I 'm favorably impressed by Outlook.com , I 'm not considering dumping Gmail myself anytime soon ; Google 's service remains a much richer platform , with additional useful features , mobile apps and support from third-party apps and services . Microsoft says to expect more Outlook.com features now that the service is out of preview mode , including Skype video calls and a calendar , both of which the company first promised when it announced the service last year . I 'll be keeping an eye on it — an Outlook.com which retained its sleek look and competed with Gmail in depth and breadth of capabilities could be spectacular . Even Gmail users who have no intention of leaving the service should be happy that Outlook.com exists . Just as Microsoft 's Bing gives Google 's search engine its only serious competition , Outlook.com is poised to be Gmail 's most imposing rival . I 'm still getting used to the notion of Microsoft , of all companies , being a plucky underdog — but I 'm glad it 's giving Google at least two incentives to avoid resting on its laurels .
Microsoft says its Outlook.com e-mail service is now officially available worldwide . The venerable Hotmail service and brand will be going away . In a blog post, the company said it has "decided to end support for Windows Live Mail in all regions except North America on April 30, 2014.