Hotmail Is Not Push Mail - Why?

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3201' target='_blank'>http://www.theunwired.net/?itemid=3201</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Under the subject "Microsoft, please add push functionality to Hotmail for Microsoft mobile devices!" Robert Webbe (you know - the guy who knows everything about Bluetooth A2DP and AVRC) sent me an interesting E-Mail yesterday and the topic he raised is absolutely worth to discuss. Why is msn not offering MSFP functionalities for its MSN Hotmail Plus service which costs yearly 19,99 Euro already! I mean, for sure you get for your 20 Euro 2 GB storage space, you can send and receive E-Mails with up to 20 MB attachments and you are not bothered by any ad-banners but - and this might make the Hotmail Plus so worth for some - you can also access your Hotmail account via Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. "</i><br /><br />Arne and friends over at the:unwired bring up a good point. Why doesn't Microsoft offer some form of push email for Hotmail users? It would seem like a logical choice to me - it would keep people on a Microsoft system (vs. moving to a hosted exchange solution) and would be another service that they could include (and, unfortunately for us, charge for if they wished). Anyone care to venture a guess at why Push Email hasn't been implemented in Hotmail?

[Brad Adrian]

My guess? Because then every employee who wants push but whose employer won't implement it would auto-forward every piece of corporate e-mail to Hotmail for push delivery. That would not only create a system with unpredictable volumes and such, but it would also reduce the incentive for employers to implement push on their own.

Or, maybe they just didn't think of it...

[ds2021]

Microsoft has previously stated that the ability to implement MSFP is carrier dependent. They could not implement this on Hotmail because they would have to coordinate implementation with every applicable mobile carrier.

[PDANEWBIE]

You have to remember this is the same service that had Outlook connections using the http methods configuration for free accounts in their helpfile and indicated they were removing that functionality quite awhile ago. Of course I still have the cheat sheet they provided at the time and you can setup Outlook to access the webmail even using these free accounts. But they no longer provide this information.

Sounds more like a company that is getting more restrictive than it is one keeping up with the times.

Not complaining because I do use it for free and who can complain about free but any service that puts more limitations on something then they do enhancements makes me wonder.

[x51vuser]

Just sign in to Messenger and you have push functionality working

[aroma]

it would keep people on a Microsoft system (vs. moving to a hosted exchange solution)

But is that such a bad deal for MS? I would be curiuos to see how the figures would play our for the revenue/cost for MS of a 3rd party hosted exchange server versus the revunue/cost of MS Hotmail on a per user basis.

[Janak Parekh]

Microsoft has previously stated that the ability to implement MSFP is carrier dependent. They could not implement this on Hotmail because they would have to coordinate implementation with every applicable mobile carrier.
Not quite. MSFP is the client-side code to support push email. While it does require a ROM update from the carrier or phone vendor, once that's done the device supports push from any Exchange server running SP2 -- it's just HTTP requests. There's no reason MS couldn't implement the Exchange ActiveSync server protocol in Hotmail, except that it may be significant amounts of work and a cost MS doesn't feel is justified at the moment.

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

Just sign in to Messenger and you have push functionality working
That's not quite true push, though. At best, it's periodic checks of Hotmail... and as for Messenger, the device has to stay on to get Messenger messages. With MSFP push, the device can be on/off and employs a number of cool technologies to get real push.

--janak

[MG]

Isn't it obvious? Their Exchange servers are not SP2 compliant 8O

Mark

[whydidnt]

Wouldn't this compete with "Outlook Live" or whatever they were trying to sell for $50./year or so? I think MS believes hotmail is consumer -- no need for push and Outlook/Exchange is business and needs Push.

Are they even still selling Outlook Live? If I recall it was there own hosted Exchange solution and they provided a copy of Outlook for use with your purchase.

[armanddp]

My guess would be to enable push email on the Hotmail service would just lead to a too high number of connections being maintained constantly to the Hotmail servers to be sustainable.
Every push enabled device would maintain an open http connection to the Hotmail service, waiting for a change, and I guess if you look at the number of Hotmail clients that might be potential users of push email it might be a denial-of-service just waiting to happen :-)

And once they've enabled it there's no going back. Imagine the backlash if one year down the line they cut the service...

Jason Langridge had a good explanation of how push is implemented on his blog -> http://blogs.msdn.com/jasonlan/archive/2005/12/03/499714.aspx

[PPCRules]

Anyone care to venture a guess at why Push Email hasn't been implemented in Hotmail?
Because GMail doesn't do it yet (i.e., they haven't had to).

[inteller]

i think its still microsofts view that WM devices are corporate use devices and since Hotmail isnt a corporate system they wont push from it. I think this is an antiquated mentality but nonetheless. Microsoft needs to embrace the corporate customer who also uses his device for personal use.

[alese]

Anyone care to venture a guess at why Push Email hasn't been implemented in Hotmail?
Because GMail doesn't do it yet (i.e., they haven't had to).

I agree, that's probably it. When GMail get's push, Hotmail will get it too, but not before...

[Phillip Dyson]

While Hotmail is a service that MS provides, perhaps it not apart of what I call their core or priority strategy.

Hotmail doesn't encourage the adoption of any particular MS platform. Unlike Exchange. Exchange pushes Windows. Its all the more reason for businesses to have Windows in their Enterprise strategies.

Exchange doesn't directly encourage Windows Mobile, but Windows Mobile encourages Exchange.

Hotmail encourages nothing. Perhaps if they fold it into Live, then this could all change.

Just a thought.

[adamz]

Hotmail already had push on Windows Mobile 2003.
Remember back before Pocket MSN was included with the Operating system? Back then you could subscribe to Pocket MSN for a fee and download a "Pocket MSN for Windows Mobile" program that you could install on a Windows Mobile 2003 Pocket PC Phone and it would enable push email for your Hotmail account. This was before Hotmail accounts were built into the Messaging application by default.
Anyway, it wasn't the push email that y'all are talking about now with Exchange 2003 SP2 which maintains a connection with the server at all times. This was text-message triggered where as an SMS would wake up your device and implement a send/recieve of your Hotmail email much like T-Mobile's implementation of "Email Triggers".

So the answer is, Hotmail did have push email. It's just that no one noticed that it was gone in later versions of Pocket MSN.

[Sven Johannsen]

If I was important enough (or whatever enough) to need push e-mail, I would have something other than free web based e-mail. [Yes I pay for the Hotmail enhancement, but not for the 2G, rather for the Outlook interface capability. I prefer just one e-mail client.]