Email is tough to kill because it's not a company or a product, it's a decentralized set of standards.
I think this is the answer to the question. Google and Microsoft e-mail monoculture could kill e-mail. Google Mail is well-known have incompatible IMAP extensions. I guess that if the two or three major players get a marketshare that is large enough, they'll start dropping more and more 3rd party mail ('just a glitch in the reputation system') until e-mail outside Google Mail and Exchange Online is not reliable enough anymore to bet your company business on.
Luckily, we are still far from that point, but with companies and universities switching to Google Apps and Office 365 en masse...
Comments
Email is tough to kill because it's not a company or a product, it's a decentralized set of standards.
I think this is the answer to the question. Google and Microsoft e-mail monoculture could kill e-mail. Google Mail is well-known have incompatible IMAP extensions. I guess that if the two or three major players get a marketshare that is large enough, they'll start dropping more and more 3rd party mail ('just a glitch in the reputation system') until e-mail outside Google Mail and Exchange Online is not reliable enough anymore to bet your company business on.
Luckily, we are still far from that point, but with companies and universities switching to Google Apps and Office 365 en masse...