Exchange alternative coming to 1and1.com

[onlydarksets]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/infoworld/20070226/tc_infoworld/86347_1
Open-Xchange will provide its open-source technology to 1&1 Internet, an international Web-hosting company that plans to offer a hosted e-mail service for €4.99 ($6.00) per user per month.

I setup an Open-Xchange server in my basement a while back. Royal PITA to get up and running, but, once it was working, it was actually a much better interface than OWA. I believe there was a SyncML engine in the works, but I'm not sure how that would work with a Smartphone, anyway. I also don't know if it's going to be available in the States. If it does, I would expect the pricing to come down a bit, since Exchange is only $6.99/month.

[Mike Temporale]

That's kind of pricey for an Exchange alternative. :?

[onlydarksets]

I thought so as well, but I checked the UK pricing for Exchange, and it is €5.99 ($7.86). I would assume the reduction in fee would be commensurate over here, which could bring it down to $4.99/month. However, to take a bite out of Exchange's share, I would imagne the pricing would have to be $3.99 or less to make it worthwhile for individuals to deal with the idiosynchrosies of a relatively young application.

[Mike Temporale]

The price would have to be a significant difference for me to pick it over Exchange. With Exchange, I know there's a company behind the product that's not going to dissappear anytime soon. For a buck or two, I would rather run Exchange. We're only talking $12-24 a year.