Email clients that don't accept HTML

[ralph.m]

I know you aren't meant to send an HTML email without sending a plain text alternative, as "some email programs don't accept HTML". But which ones? I haven't actually come across one (so far as I know). I keep stressing the importance to clients of sending a plain text version of their emails, but I'm starting to wonder why.

[Stevie D]

Lotus Notes (2006 release, and possibly others) doesn't seem to, as emails I get from people using it are always plain-text. Some webmail services such as mail2web.com are plain text only. I'm sure there are some mobile phones that have native email clients that are plain text only as well.

[ralph.m]

Thanks Stevie. Interesting to know. I was starting to wonder if it was relevant any more.

[chris.upjohn]

The only time i ever see HTML emails these days is either when it's a full out sparkling newsletter from Smashing Mag or someone else like them or when it's a proper campaign by a company, at work i build them all the time but when it comes to building emails at home i simply just use plain text and some inline styling sometimes to get a nicer font but apart from that i just don't see any reason why a user should have to wait for a server to send images to the client when he/she can just simply start reading why they got the email.

[ralph.m]

The only time i ever see HTML emails these days is either when it's a full out sparkling newsletter from Smashing Mag or someone else like them or when it's a proper campaign by a company

Sure. I do this for companies with CampaignMonitor. But they recommend you send a plain text version of these emails ... hence the question of who (if anyone) sees the plain text version.