Hotmail now supports push email, calendar, and contacts with Exchange ActiveSync
Hotmail is making it easier for you to stay up-to-date and be productive on your phone. Starting today, you can get your email, calendar, and contacts pushed automatically to your phone using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS).
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft is shipping what CNET previewed just four days ago in its report that Exchange ActiveSync would arrive on Hotmail on Monday: native push of mail, calendar, and contacts over a protocol built for corporate Exchange servers. The move answers Google Sync's 2009 push-Gmail rollout, which put Gmail ahead of rivals on smartphones.
It also fits a longer arc for a service long cast as a laggard — analysts noted back in 2007 that web-based email had seen only token improvements in a decade while IM and social networks raced ahead. With Hotmail among the oldest free webmail services and running at megaservice scale, adding EAS signals Microsoft treating mobile sync, not the browser inbox, as the new competitive front.
First-order effects
- Hotmail users with EAS-capable phones can now get email, calendar, and contacts pushed automatically without third-party apps or manual polling — closing the mobile feature gap with Gmail's Google Sync setup.
Second-order effects
- Google's 2009 head start on native phone sync is neutralized at zero cost to Hotmail users, pressuring other large free webmail providers to adopt enterprise-grade sync protocols or concede smartphone users.
Third-order effects
- If free consumer email keeps standardizing on Exchange ActiveSync, a Microsoft-originated enterprise protocol becomes the de facto sync layer across competing webmail platforms — shifting rivalry from inbox features to who syncs best on which device.
The trend: Consumer webmail is absorbing enterprise sync protocols like Exchange ActiveSync as competition migrates from the desktop inbox to push-everything-on-the-phone.