Though this thread is long, it suggests that I inadvertently may have found a source for my original problem. I certainly hope so.
My original post is pretty long, but if you follow the instructions in my original post, it's pretty easy to implement Outlook-Hotmail synchronization for contacts and calendar. I've tried to take feedback about issues (from this thread) and then edit the original post to include key issues that have been brought up, so you probably don't really need to read through this entire thread.
If anyone has experienced the same multi-duplicating in EVO Contacts and has found an alternate solution, I'd be most grateful if you would share it with me.
I think most duplicate contact issues stem from the following. Your phone is capable of containing basically three types of contacts:
1) "Google contacts" which are, by default, synced with any Gmail account that you have on your Android device.
2) "Corporate contacts", which are synced with any corporate Exchange Server account or Hotmail/Live-Mail/MSN-Mail account you have on your Android device.
3) "Phone-only contacts", which are only stored on your phone and are only synchronized through software that you install on your PC or that your phone store may have on their PC. These "Phone-only" contacts are not synchronized, unless you do so with the aforementioned PC software.
Duplicates tend to occur when more than one of the above contact types are added to the Android device. For example, if you have a Gmail account with some contacts, you buy an Android phone for the first time, and the phone-store representative transfers your contacts from your old phone to your new phone as "phone-only" contacts, then when you add your Gmail account to your Android phone, you'll end up with two duplicate contacts-- the "Google Contacts" from your Gmail account, and the "Phone-only" contacts from your old phone. Or, for example, if you add multiple Gmail accounts to your Android device (each containing contacts) you'll get duplicate "Google contacts". Or for example, if you add a Gmail account and a Hotmail account or an Exchange Account to your Android device (each containing contacts) you'll get duplicate "Google contacts" and "Corporate Contacts".
You can check the sources of your duplicate contacts by opening a contact, hitting the "settings" button on your phone, and then selecting "Edit". At the top of the contact, you'll see "Google contact", or "Corporate contact" or "Phone-only contact". Sometimes they'll be merged together and if you scroll down, you'll see the contact information repeated, with the contact type (Google, Corporate, Phone-only) displayed at the top of each section.
If you plan to use Outlook & Hotmail as a way to sync contacts, I would recommend that you delete your contacts from Gmail (or as I note in my original post, change your sync settings so that you don't synchronize contacts with Gmail). Sync your contacts only with your Hotmail account. If your master list of contacts is on Outlook, then I would also suggest that you don't let the store representative transfer your old contacts over to your new phone (which generally creates the "phone-only" duplicate contacts mess.) Or just delete all of your phone-only contacts.
If you have both a Hotmail account and a Gmail account on your phone, then (as I mentioned in my original post) when you create a new contact from your phone, you'll be asked under which account you'd like to create the contact, such as your Gmail account or your Hotmail account.
Note that at any time you can turn on or turn off the synchronzation of contacts with any of your Google or Exchange/Hotmail accounts.
I hope that made sense. Good luck.