It is on July 31, 2012 when Microsoft launches Outlook.com, based on the Metro interface of Windows 8 (released in October 2012).
The new webmail seems to have succeeded in its return, although we have to wait before drawing any right conclusions. Indeed, the mail service welcomed a million users only 6 hours after its launch! It was very fast, but Hotmail, on which Outlook.com is based at the same time, is different from being a marginal service, since there were more than 360 million users as of 2011. In truth, Hotmail was launched in 1996, before being bought by microsoft a year later. It is said that it took a long time that Redmond firm didn’t really want to pass it through under Outlook!
The appearance of this new service of Redmont firm includes the arrival of new e-mail addresses, @ outlook.com which will now replace @ hotmail.com (already 10 years old!), possessed by millions of people. (Hurry-up to register if you want to set-up your email with @ outlook.com ...)
Remember that Outlook.com will offer an integration of Skype, to probably offer a similar service of Gtalk which is available on the messaging system of Google.