No Android EAS support for Hotmail

Microsoft has now released Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) support for Hotmail. It will allow calendar and email features to be viewed from Hotmail on smartphones. Therefore you can make changes to your Hotmail account on the web or via your mobile device.

The roll-out is effective immediately instead of taking place gradually but it will not come to Android mobile users straight away.

Instead you can only get support if you have a support iPhone, Windows Phone 7 or various other Apple, Nokia or Windows phones.

A Microsoft statement said: "The Hotmail team will add Android mobile to list of supported devices in the coming months after testing is completed but Android 2.1 is not currently supported due to known issues."

Although Microsoft is not officially supporting Android 2.1 it is possible to sync Android 2.2 from Hotmail via the Touchdown application or the default application.

Some users have also had success in supporting Android with Hotmail ActiveSync.

Microsoft Marches on Smartphone Market

Microsoft is preparing itself for all out war on the smartphone market with half a billion dollars being spent on the Windows Phone 7 launch. It is thought that another billion dollars will go towards marketing when phone 7 is released.

Android mobile users will realise that this is a genuine competitor to their product, but also that they have helped to make the Android mobile successful and it is the fastest growing smartphone product available.

The success of the Android is part of the reason why Microsoft is spending so much money on branding their phone. The $500 million launch expenses figure for phone 7 is similar to Apple's entire advertising budget for 2009. The other motivation is the failure of the Microsoft Kin smartphone which was withdrawn earlier this year.

Not only is Microsoft spending big bucks on the launch but it has agreed to subsidize handset manufacturers' non-recurring engineering costs. There are also revenue guarantees for the manufacturers of apps. Microsoft hopes to challenge the success of apps for the Android and iPhone with the latter being a billion dollar industry.

An analyst at Deutsche Bank, Jonathan Goldberg, said that this was a pivotal moment for Microsoft in the smartphone market: “This is make or break for them. They need to do whatever it takes to stay in the game.”