Well, Yahoo went ahead and boosted space on their free email service to 1GB, but there was no BIG announcement; they said they were going to do it, then rather quietly went ahead and did it. This was probably because they got scooped by Google, who without warning boosted theirs to 2GB, and that number increases constantly. Google basically indicates that they don't see any point in saying exactly where it will stop, which is both fun and interesting. Everyday I have a few more megabytes of space. Hotmail of course is still lagging at a now measly 250MB, but I really wonder if Microsoft is going to boot hotmail soon. I mostly doubt that, but they seem strangely uninterested in the current web-mail battle.
One thing I do applaud though, is the decision by Yahoo to NOT release Bloomba. Bloomba was a perfectly lousy implementation of a great idea; an email client with contact and task management that "majored" in searchability. I tried it before Yahoo bought it and found it overpriced and underfeatured. Yahoo probably got a good look at it, said, "Hey, this is trash!" and promptly relegated it to the trash heap out back. Good riddance I say. Seventy bucks for a barebones, option-less mess of a program was just too much. There another program, called Barca, from Poco Systems that's a pretty nice do-all client, but it's a little costly too. Some of these guys need to reevaluate their price structuring in light of the growing power and popularity of web mail in general, and FREE webmail in particular. Otherwise most might scrape out a survival, but none of them will really thrive. Thunderbird, for example, is an awesome client, as least as good as Barca, and in many ways safer and more useful than even Outlook (matter of opinion here, of course) and it's free. Why (my motto again) pay for functionality if you can get it free?
I think we might soon, if we're not already, see a lot of upheaval in the area of software. Prices need to come down; waaaaaay down, and if free/open source software does nothing else useful, perhaps it will be the catalyst that makes that happen.
I support that to the hilt. I'm a bit tired of companies exaggerating the cost of producing software. I have heard a few stories and explanations, researched them and found them to be either completely bogus, or at the very least largely inaccurate exaggerations and/or outright misrepresentations. To me, it's a lot like the automotive industry, the cost of building a car and getting it into your driveway is insanely out of proportion to what you actually pay to get that car to your driveway. Don't believe it? Then explain how Ford, who for the past 3-4 years has been offering $5000 - $8000 rebates on many of their products, yet has been reporting some of the highest profits in nearly 20 years!