A few years back, no one in the Microsoft ecosystem would have dreamed these will happen. I for one certainly didn’t see it coming. In the last year under CEO Satya Nadella, there have been waves of change at Microsoft. I am loving these!
Last week, Microsoft released a unified mail app for iOS and Android. The apps allow you to connect your Microsoft Exchange Server, Office 365 subscription, and Hotmail (Outlook.com) accounts. Apart from those, the mail app supports Google Gmail, Yahoo mail and Apple iCloud. There is great Calendar, Contacts (People), and Files (Onedrive.com & Dropbox) integration as well. I was pleasantly surprised to see the calendar and contacts integration working for Google Calendar & Google Contacts as well, something which even Google doesn’t do well outside Google Chrome & Android platforms.
From the minute I installed the iPad app I know it will be a huge hit. I love the clean, simple design and especially the crisp font face is awesome. Two reviews in the iTunes app store caught my attention – one said “Wow I can’t believe Microsoft is out-cooling apple…” and other “No mail app on iOS has come close to the new Outlook App”. WOW!
Microsoft Outlook app on iPad
Onedrive file support with a built-in preview of MS Office files
I tried the Android version of Microsoft Outlook, and while it’s not as polished as the iOS version, it is much better than earlier released Outlook.com (Hotmail) and the default Gmail app in Android (which doesn’t have unified view of multiple accounts).
Microsoft Outlook app for Android
Reading “The Register” article I came to know the App (Microsoft Outlook for iOS and Android) is a re-branded of the Acompli app which has been there for some time. I had missed the news of Microsoft buying Acompli late last year. I don’t care whether Microsoft bought the app or built it, I simply love it!
Hi,
The post dated on the 7th of August on the etailing expo in chennai http://venkatarangan.com/blog/2014/08/etailing-india-expo-chennai-2014/ ) misinterpreted a fact. The speaker, Nayan’s information was incorrect. He is currently the co-founder of ISeB which is an eCommerce Training centre. However, formerly he was into the grocery business. I request you to change the incorrect information.
Thanks for bringing it to my attention, have corrected the same.