A couple of weeks ago some testers of Windows Live Hotmail (beta) were sent an email saying that:


This was not a huge shock, especially if you think about the amount of time it has been in beta for, how far it has come, and the release schedules of other Windows Live products.

Now the release seems to have edged even closer. French users subscribed to the monthly Hotmail email newsletter received the April edition recently, which contained a little surprise. For those of you who don't speak French here is a rough translation of the text:


So could we soon see the first release of Windows Live Hotmail - over one and a half years since testing began? It seems increasingly likely and would provide much needed 'advertising' for the Windows Live brand, along with lots of confusing from existing MSN Hotmail users no doubt.

However several questions still remain, including:

• will the upgrade be compulsory for existing MSN Hotmail users?
• how long will it take to transfer everyone over (considering that it has taken days to upgrade mail beta versions for just the existing beta testers in the past)?
• will there be a new version or will the release be the current M10 version?
• and will the @live addresses (first talked about in June last year) finally be officially available? (along with a migration tool to switch info from @hotmail accounts to new @live accounts?)

Everything is left to be answered (or not as the case may be) in the coming week ...