• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, August 1, 2012

Putting other email services -- along with newsletters and email marketers -- on notice, Microsoft is preparing to launch what it promises to be a revolutionary new Hotmail.

“With Outlook.com (as the service has been renamed), Microsoft says it has reimagined personal email, by which it means a modern, social-savvy, business-friendly refresh of Google's now 8-year-old Gmail,” eWeek reports.

“The move is Microsoft’s latest attempt to combat the rise of Gmail,” GeekWire writes. “Hotmail has long been the largest Webmail service worldwide, but Google’s email service has been climbing quickly.”

Hotmail’s worldwide market share fell 4% over the past year, slipping to 324 million users in June, while Gmail rose 17% to 278 million users over the same time period, according to comScore.

Marketshare aside, Chris Jones, Microsoft’s chief sales officer, says it’s time for an entirely new approach to email. "Email is becoming less and less useful as inboxes become cluttered with newsletters and social updates, and people increasingly keep up their personal connections in social networks instead of their email address books," Jones write in a Tuesday blog post. "All of this has led many to hope for a better solution so you don't have to settle for today's Webmail."

Yet, after getting a sneak peek at the new platform, early analyst reaction appears to be mixed.

“This will probably appeal to Microsoft loyalists and those tied to the Outlook email client,” Greg Sterling from Sterling Market Intelligence tells Computerworld. “However, there aren't any features here that on their surface appear revolutionary."

“After spending some time with the Outlook.com preview … it’s clear that Microsoft is serious about giving users an improved email experience,” writes a more forgiving Alexandra Chang in Wired.com.

Analyst reaction aside, Microsoft boasted that 1 million consumers had signed up for the new service on Tuesday.

Still, “the product launched with a media firestorm boosting its profile, so the number, while encouraging for Microsoft, isn’t exceptionally surprising,” The Next Web notes.