Apparently, email is now ever more passé with usage increasing only in senior citizens according to the metric below. Facebook's aptly-named Fmail is the newest communication platform trying stick it to Gmail, but also accommodate the desire for instant information gratification, and of course to remain technologically hip, and thus relevant to new consumers.
However, I think this is a misguided attempt to identify a trend. Yahoo and Hotmail are on the decline becaue they aren't flexible platforms, and because I get he feeling that they are constantly trying to sell me something. And, I don't see any single medium supplanting email, as the telephone did the letter. Instant messaging has existed for decades in a variety of incarnations ranging from AIM to the almighty pager, as has the video-conferencing capabilities of Skype. I remember seeing a video-phone in elementary school (and if I remember correctly the pricetag at that time was over a thousand dollars).
The greatest recent shift in communication technology has really been bandwith and computing power, so people are able to share and collaborate more, faster. Photographs, videos, and chat rooms are not new. Only now, we have all of these things simultaneously whilst on the train to work. But, I do not see email being replaced any time soon, only adapted to more seamlessly integrate more robust mixed-media.
