Hotmail, the free email service, was started in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, both ex-employees
Question:
Hotmail, the free email service, was started in 1996 by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, both ex-employees of Apple. Their vision was to give people access to email from any computer in the world. Bhatia and Smith had attracted their one millionth subscriber within the first six months of Hotmail's launch. By its 18th month, on Bhatia's 29th birthday, Hotmail had been bought by Microsoft for $400 million. Hotmail has moved on since its early days. For example, MSN Messenger was launched in 1999 and allowed Hotmail subscribers to use instant messaging services. Webcam technology also allowed MSN Messenger customers to use audio and visual features. This has since been replaced by the upgraded Windows Live Messenger. In 2007, Hotmail was finally revamped and rebranded as Windows Live Hotmail.
(a) Explain why Hotmail was seen as an innovative product.
(b) Examine the importance of innovation to high-tech firms such as Microsoft.
Expert Answer:
Answer a Hotmail has been always seen as an innovative product back in the nineties most computer users paid for Internet service which included one email address and hotmail hompage have free email s... View the full answer
