Hotmail is a free email, calendar, and contact service offered by Microsoft. Using a Hotmail or Windows Live account, email, calendar events, and contacts may be synced in real time to an Android device from Outlook.
Outlook must first be set up to include the Hotmail/Windows Live account. The Microsoft Outlook Hotmail Connector must be downloaded and installed to perform this task. I found it very easy to use. The Connector works with Outlook 2003, 2007, and 2010, including the 64 bit edition. The Hotmail account must also be set up on the Android device. After this, syncing is all automatically.
My Droid easily accepted the Hotmail account, synced the calendar to a separate Hotmail calendar, and allowed a merged view of both the standard Android calendar and my Hotmail calendar. If I added a new calendar item on my Android using the Hotmail calendar, it was pushed to Outlook in a few minutes. When adding a calendar event, you have the option of which calendar gets the event, so be sure to choose the Hotmail account or the event will not be synced with Hotmail. This is all applies to Hotmail contacts as well.
Hotmail has a few advantages over Gmail. Hotmail syncs calendar and contacts in addition to email, while Gmail only syncs email. Google does offer the free Google Calendar Sync to synchronize the Gmail calendar with Outlook, but they still fall short of offering a free Google contact sync like Microsoft does with Hotmail.
There are a few extra things worth mentioning. The Hotmail connector allows you to enter Notes and Tasks in Outlook, but they are clearly noted as being in Outlook only. Notes and tasks do not sync to Hotmail. It is important to note that only the Hotmail/Windows Live email, calendar, and contacts will be synced. Standard Outlook calendar, contacts, and any other email accounts configured in Outlook will not be synced. However, you can configure Hotmail to receive email from many other email accounts and that email will be synced with Outlook and your Android.
Microsoft and Seven have released a Hotmail app for Android. It is described as "The only official Microsoft mobile app for Hotmail that gives you easy access to Hotmail so you never miss an email." I did not use this app for my testing and do not find it necessary for syncing.
As a final thought, Hotmail as it stands does not sync contact pictures or categories, nor calendar categories. CompanionLink offers a method of syncing Outlook, including categories, contact pictures, and tasks, to a Hotmail account and then your Android can be configured to sync to Hotmail. Using this combined with the Hotmail Outlook Connector will allow you to also sync email.
If you are interested in using Hotmail, you can find Microsoft’s official instructions here along with information on how to install the unnecessary Hotmail app:
Microsoft Hotmail Instructions
The Outlook Hotmail Connector may be found here: