why does someone need html email anyway? say it in plain text and if that's not possible just stick in a url. And you get to actually track it easily too.
You could apply the same argument to webpages. I think HTML e-mail is a complete mess right now, but allowing some degree of e-mail styling does go a long way in helping users understand what the e-mail is trying to convey.
Something as simple as laying out tabluar data in a table is extremely hard to pull off effectively with a plain-text e-mail.
Exactly. For my Hacker Newsletter project I have a real hard time putting in all the links (one to the article, one to the comments) in text mode, but HTML makes this easy for users to scan and use.
Two words: Marketing Departments. Blizzard Entertainment doesn't want to try to win back a lapsed subscriber with text alone, they want to have bright, colorful graphics with a bold call to action.
It's already too late to be completely rid of HTML mailers, so let's at least make them work.
Something as simple as laying out tabluar data in a table is extremely hard to pull off effectively with a plain-text e-mail.