So Email's Not Going Anywhere, eh?

Not according to this Computerworld article, anyway.  (Thank you for the reference, Lina!)  Then what does this mean for all those collaborative "solutions" that are trying to replace email with "activity streams" and other options?  I suspect they won't do well unless they surface the email IN their streams instead of attempting to replace it with non-email.

Unfortunately, this effort is only happening for the enterprise. Non-organizational email is dwindling, so there's no market for go-getter developers to come up with something new and hip. So we can't hope to social-source an next-gen email--we can only hope that the big corporate solution providers come up with something not-heinous.  Avoiding heinousness requires vision and being in touch with the go-getters.  Both of which become increasingly more difficult, the bigger the solution provider gets.

I am skeptical that we will see a next-gen email come from these sources.  I suspect (and this makes me sad) that we will ride email out until the last of the email-comfortable workforce retires and then replace it -- whole hog -- with something not-email.  By then it may be too little, too late.