Unless the "Gmail" equivalent is offered free, I don't see how they can penetrate the market to displace current Users of Gmail or Live.ca/Live.com !
If the Linux community as a whole recognized that having something like that, available for free, would be a benefit as a beachead into the world of non-Linux Users, maybe operational funding for that could be obtained from a broader base of Linux distro/app Producers!
Just a thought! 