Why Amazon Is Getting Into Business E-Mail

Amazon’s approach to the consumer world has been to introduce as many products and services as possible, in the hope that customers will use them all once they are in Amazon's ecosystem. The company clearly sees the business market in the same way with its announcement today of WorkMail, which will bolster its cloud computing dominance and take on e-mail leaders Microsoft and Google.

The e-mail and calendar service, which the company first discussed in an article on the Forbes website, will charge businesses $4 a month per user for a 50-gigabyte mailbox. It can be bundled with the company’s existing Zocalo file storage service for an additional $2 monthly, according to Forbes. The service will also encrypt messages and will work with existing e-mail applications, including Microsoft's Outlook.