Consumers Quickly Nab 1 Million Outlook.com Email Addresses

Any concern over a slow start for Microsoft's reimagined email client Outlook.com was squashed when more than 1 million email addresses were claimed within six hours of the product's noon EST launch.

"One million people have signed up for a new, modern email experience at Outlook.com," the service tweeted shortly after 6 p.m. EST Tuesday.

Microsoft yesterday as a preview; it will ultimately replace Redmond's current Hotmail service.

Anyone looking to get a personal email address from Outlook.com, which was named after its associated PC program, can visit the website to register. Existing @hotmail, @live, and @msn account holders can upgrade to the new client and keep their names.

In talking to PCMag about the launch, Chris Jones, corporate vice president of the Windows Business Group, outlined four driving goals in designing Outlook.com: to take a different, modern approach to the user interface suited to mobile devices; to make it personal through connections to social networks; to make it smart and powerful in handling different types of email; and to put the user in control.

In an effort to top email competitor Gmail, Outlook.com includes social media integration with Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and is expecting to sync up soon with recent Microsoft acquisition, Skype. The all-in-one design includes Contacts, Calendar, and SkyDrive cloud storage, as well as direct Inbox access to documents from Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

For more, see PCMag's and the slideshow below.