With the official announcement that Windows Live is out of beta, Microsoft (MSFT) is billing the suite of Internet services as bigger than the sum of its parts. The company has been working on the initiative for about two years.
The coming out of beta doesn't include two parts of the suite which have been on the burner for awhile: Windows Live Calendar and online storage service Windows Live SkyDrive. Both services will be in beta for some time before rolling them out for general usage.
Brian Hall, general manager of the Windows Live Business Group, said "The key point is that the end-to-end experience is what's finally coming out of beta."
This is a reference to the integration of the suite, rather than anything new being included in the offering.
According to Microsoft, here is what is now included with the Windows Live official release:
Mail: Desktop client for checking multiple e-mail accounts
Hotmail: Web-based e-mail service
Messenger: Instant-messaging service
Photo Gallery: Desktop client for photo organizing, editing and online sharing
Spaces: Blogging and social-networking service
Writer:Desktop client for publishing to blogs
Events: Online party planning
OneCare Family Safety: Parental-control software for managing when kids are online and whom they communicate with
Individually all of these will pretty much operate as they have in the past. With Windows Live Mail, users will be able to interact with multiple email accounts - which will include Yahoo and Google - yet without the need to open a Web browser.
The changes to Windows Live have come about from consumers not understanding the complexity and variety of what Microsoft was
trying to offer them. At one time last summer there were over 20 products or services under the Live Brand. Industry followers were even having a hard time understanding what it was all about.
It looks like the company will market their new service primarily through their Hotmail an Messenger base, to get the buzz going and heaviest users familiar with the new suite.
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