Today I got this link in the mail: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/stats/email-clients/
There is another one from 2009: http://www.campaignmonitor.com/blog/post/2839/email-client-popularity-june-2009/
Even though I think this is fantastic news for Apple, it’s bad news for Micro$oft and IBM.
But lets look at it a bit closer. The disclaimer explains, how they count the clients; whenever a recipient opens a mail from Campaingmonitor and loads the images. Sounds logic, but I would almost never add to the statistic, because most of the time, I don’t load the pictures. How many out there do this? Don’t know, neither probably Campaignmonitor. But since most users don’t care about it, let’s assume the numbers show at least a tendency.
If we take the numbers, as they are, older Outlook clients are on a decline and Outlook 2010 isn’t adopted fast enough to make up for it. On the other hand, mobile device clients are soaring and Apple has the bulk of it. Also Apple Mail is gaining. Entourage isn’t a factor and so is Notes. When I look at it, something springs to mind. Not the big, feature loaded Clients are hot, no, easy ones, web mail, mobile mail clients with just the basic functionality (Hey IBM, how many times I told you that NotesBuddy was a cool Email Client? Now you see why). Most people don’t need all that fancy stuff. Apple Mail is gaining, from my point of view, a very basic email client … but it looks like people like exactly that.
I just happen to look my gmail account today – I haven’t for about 2 or 3 month – and there are so many new features, it just isn’t intuitive anymore. That could explain, why google mail isn’t as hot, as they make us believe. It isn’t a forerunner. Even yahoo has (still) more users.
At least, from now on, we all have an argument against the „All-have-Outlook-at-home“ mantra.
Christian,
Simplicity should also apply to applications. Far too many applications are loaded with so much stuff that it is hard to use and turns off the user.
My kids refuse to use email. They get it on their phones only, no laptop or desktop email at all. They prefer texting and facebook.
Outlook is is used by the majority of corporate email users. Even IBM cannot deny this anymore and those are the ones who spend big money. For Europe the statistics would be much different anyway. United Internet/Telekom/Telefonica are big players here as is Blackberry in Corporate. Keeping in mind what position Lotus had a decade ago it is quite a sad story.
Microsoft has put its weight on Exchange a long time ago. Outlook became less important but Microsoft recognised that a protocol like Active Sync can play an important role And they make real money with it, even from IBM. IBM once had SyncML but they screwed it.
When it comes to Enterprise messaging Microsoft is stronger than ever. And shame on IBM but Exchange even does provide better IMAP support. So Exchange will run equal or better with almost every other mail clients while a Domino server still basically still serves a the Notes client. Perhaps it was the right decision by IBM to resign in the messaging space and concentrate on other areas.
What is really interesting is that this is email client not email system. How many apple devices are connecting to Domino or exchange?
I respond to most emails from an iTouch or Android tablet but I use Domino for all the mail.
What does Traveler on the Android really come back with?
This shows little more then what is know, mobile devices are on the rise and that no one owns the show.
Also what target is most of their campaigns? consumer or business? Consumers will use the cheapest and most convenient client.