Microsoft launches pilot program for Outlook Premium, a $3.99 per month version of its email service

[midian182]

Earlier this year, news leaked that Microsoft was testing a new version of its Outlook email platform that introduced new, premium features for a $3.99 per month fee. While there is still no formal launch date for Outlook Premium, the company has now started an invite-only pilot program for the service.

Signing up for Outlook Premium will let you create five personalized email addresses with your own custom domain names, which is good news for those users who prefers something other than a @outlook.com, @live.com, or @hotmail.com address.

Sign-ups will also get better calendar, contact, and document sharing features, as well as an ad-free inbox. Additionally, you won’t be charged for the first 12 months of using Outlook Premium, and it’s free to Office 365 subscribers. The subscription only starts at the end of the first year, giving you plenty of time to decide if it’s worth the monthly fee.

It's Microsoft's partnership with GoDaddy that allows Outlook Premium users to customize their email address domains. After the year’s free trial has expired, however, these domains aren’t automatically renewed with Premium or Office 365 subscriptions; keeping them will require customers to visit GoDaddy.com, according to the FAQ.

While having no ads in Outlook Premium may sound appealing, Microsoft already offers an ad-free version of the email service for the lower price of $19.95 a year. It doesn’t come with any of the other features offered in the Premium package, though.

Microsoft hasn’t said anything else about the program, other than issuing the following statement:

Outlook.com Premium is currently a small pilot program. We’re always investigating new features based on the wants and needs of our customers, and we have nothing more to share at this time.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/64336-microsoft-launches-pilot-program-outlook-premium-399-month.html

 

[Uncle Al]

Yawn .... nothing earth shattering other than the new price .....

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

So what's so appealing about it that people would pay for it? If you want an ad free experience (which I get for absolutely nothing anyway) use Adblock. It sounds like another of M$'s legal rackets to me.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Yawn .... nothing earth shattering other than the new price .....

Nothing earth shattering about the price either, in fact it's conservative considering it's M$.

 

[Thrackerzod]

Remember when an email client was a free (and ad free) part of the OS? I don't like this new Microsoft with their adware ridden programs and nickel and diming us to remove them (even the new Solitaire has ads, seriously MS?). What's next, ads in the calculator app?

 

[Raoul Duke]

Hasn't MS always had a free e-mail client in their OS? I don't know about the ad part since I've used Outlook at work and now at home since about year 2000

 

[Kibaruk]

So... you all missed the big part of this...

Signing up for Outlook Premium will let you create five personalized email addresses with your own custom domain names

People pay for this and depending on the package it's more than $4 per month per email account. They'll probably also work on a bundle for email only for companies, might be as well. This is the only reason why I would pay for email. Also exchange capabilities are really nice.

On a side note, this makes your email extremely vulnerable. Depending on where you bought the domain, there have been some terrifying creepstories about how easy it is to hack your domain account and forward the MX details to another account, which can make your email and accounts associated with that email extremely unsecure. Would recommend to have a strong free email like google with multiple layers of security like phone messages or google authenticator verification and what not for your really important stuff.