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Well, I can certainly understand the concern. It has indeed been a business model of a lot of people, before. I've had a few accounts that dropped the POP3 after an introductory period.
But there are some differences. First of all, Google is big, and varied enough that it is less important to grab a big share of any one captive market. And they know that enough people prefer the web interface that the adspace there will remain profitable.
They also tend to be more independant. Yahoo, for example, bundles its 'premium' services for some ISP customers. Obviously the value would be lessened if others were getting this for free.
(Although this is not market-wide. Yahoo.ca accounts, for example, still offer free POP3 access.)
And Google's marketing has always been a little different- relying on the goodwill of willing consumers, rather than trapping customers like certain nameless would-be monopolies.
They have a vested interest in keeping people happy, and attracted to a broad spectrum of their services.
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