October 17, 2005
We Can't Get Enough E-mail
Today we're managing multiple accounts, but in 10 years will e-mail communications be part of us, literally?
More than half of e-mail users manage more than one account, according to Outblaze, which today issued the results of its 2005 Global E-mail User Survey.
, a global provider of hosted e-mail services, polled 853 people worldwide on their e-mail habits and expectations. The company manages approximately 40 million active mailboxes for several sites and companies worldwide and provides perimeter security for an additional 30 million mailboxes.
Fifty-three percent of the respondents indicated they managed two or three e-mail accounts. Thirteen percent said they have five or six accounts, 4 percent maintain seven or eight accounts, and 8 percent manage 10 or more accounts. Moreover, 22 percent of the respondents expected to sign up for additional e-mail accounts next year.
Outblaze also reported that 57 percent of the respondents expected their incoming e-mail traffic to increase next year and 50 percent expected their outgoing e-mails to increase in 2006. But the expected increase in traffic doesn't mean more storage is a priority. Respondents indicated that stopping spam and viruses was more important than more storage by nearly a three to one margin.
Looking into the future, Outblaze users were pessimistic about the chances of eliminating malware. Eighty-six percent of the e-mail users survey said they held out no hope that viruses and spam could be eliminated in the next three years.
Ten years from now, however, half the respondents envisioned an e-mail capability commonly available in automobiles. Nearly the same number, 42 percent, foresee e-mail as a standard feature on watches. And 8 percent felt that all other e-mail delivery methods would become obsolete in 10 years because we'd have e-mail chips in our brains.
13%
25%
38%
25%
