Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Anyone seen any research on what mail client's people use at home ?

I recently had an exec say to me that most people use Outlook at home therefore it is better that they use it at work.

I'd think most people actually use some form of web mail at home... anyone seen any research on this topic ?


8 comments:

Ian Randall said...

This is one report about relative market share of email clients.

http://www.campaignmonitor.com/stats/email-clients/

Not limited to home usage, but if the trends are accurate, Outlook has actually slowly declined over the last 6 months.

Ian Randall said...

This report also shows that Web based email clients such as Hotmail and Yahoo! Mail far outnumbers the use of Outlook by home users. Apple Mail and GMail also has a statistically significant market share.

http://fingerprintapp.com/email-client-stats

So the perception that Outlook dominates the home email or consumer market is incorrect.

Even in the Business email market, Outlook is behind other email clients particularly the Web based email clients.

Bruce And Kathy said...

Personally, I use gmail thru a browser for my personal mail. I have my wife using thunderbird for her mail client.

tom oneil said...

Ever since the virus attacks of the 2000s, I have steered every friend and family member away from Microsoft Outlook.

As you mentioned... whoever is still using a "fat client" at home is not technologically savvy enough to make opinions on which email system to use in a company.

Ed Brill said...

Adam, this is a truism that Microsoft employees and advocates repeat often enough for it to be believed. All data (including other reports from analysts like Forresteray say that web-based is the vast majority.

Keith Brooks said...

Adam, Sure everyone drives an SUV too so all employees should have one.
Or everyone has an iPhone the standard phone for corp should be.

Generalities never work and should always be replied to with a similar generality that the speaker can understand. Use monosyllabic words for Microsoft people.

I know some people that use outlook at home but most of my friends use their phone 1st, then gmail/yahoo/webmail of some sort.

We use Notes at home and gmail/yahoo.

David Robertson said...

Something not quite right about the stats from http://fingerprintapp.com/email-client-stats. The section for Business Recipients lists Lotus Notes at 0.2% and Hotmail at 33%

Ian Randall said...

Yes, the stats are based on a sample, and the sample size may have skewed the percentages somewhat. Additionally, many users have multiple email accounts at the same time, which will further complicate the count of relative market share. I use Notes email and Google email in the office, and use a mixture of Outlook and Web based emails at home. I also use the Notes Client INotes while travelling and to access my email while using email through customer networks.

However, most of the research that I have seen supports the fact that the use of Web based email far outnumbers the use of Outlook.