Outlook comes to Android and iOS, as Office for Android exits beta

[Scorpus]

Microsoft has made two app-related announcements today, the first of which concerns their widely used email application, Outlook. For the first time, Outlook will be available on iOS and Android thanks to their acquisition of mobile email startup Acompli, which cost the company an estimated $200 million in December last year.

The Outlook client for both mobile platforms supports Exchange, Outlook.com, Yahoo! Mail and Gmail as well as general standards-based accounts. The app's interface will allow you to easily sort through emails, using swipe gestures to delete, flag, mark as read and archive. Meeting invitations can also be quickly accepted, rejected or rescheduled from within the app.

The new Outlook client for iOS and Android should be available through the App Store and Play Store today.

On a similar note, Microsoft has announced that Office for Android has now been finalized, and will be available through the Play Store in the coming hours. A beta version of the app has been available publicly since earlier this month, although select beta testers have had access since November last year.

Although Microsoft considers Office for Android feature complete, the system requirements still leave out a number of users. Tablets are still the only class of devices supported, and you'll need a screen size of between 7 and 10.1 inches to get free access (larger tablets will need an Office 365 subscription). You'll also need to be running Android 4.4, have an ARM-based tablet, and at least 1 GB of RAM.

Microsoft says that Office for Android isn't yet optimized for Android 5.0, although they're working on supporting the latest OS in a future update. Tablets with Intel's x86 SoCs inside will also be natively supported in a future version.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/59563-outlook-ios-android-office-exits-beta.html

 

[Arris]

The Outlook (aka re-skinned Hotmail app) was awful for Android. I only have it on my phone to have an "Account" listed that I can tell Gmail to pull into itself. It used to hang and not refresh/load new mail. Only way to fix was to kill the app(force stop) and restart it. Very frustrating. This looks like it might be more gmail like with the swiping to delete/archive. I'll give it a go as to be honest, with 3 mail accounts, two of which are gmail, and having the Inbox beta app from Google the notifications from one app mean I miss some email.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

It looks like Outlook is becoming a lot like Inbox by Google which I like.

 

[Guest]

It appears their strategy is to leverage their strong point, Applications (Office). They relied upon the vertical stack of their OS (Windows) and Applications (Office) for a long time, but realize the commoditization of the OS, reduces the margin in that space. Linux (on servers, etc.) and and the overlay of the Android environment (mobile devices) has greatly disrupted the proprietary OS market share and the associated margins over time and in future projections.

The big money as always been in the Application space. MS made it's big money from their Apps (Office - remember DOS ain't done, til Lotus won't run?).

The death of the PC - does not mean the death of MS, IF they can play in the Mobile App market. MS realizes PC sales are declining and is migrating their solutions into the mobile space via their hardware (Surface) and their Apps (Office) via multiple channels. With respect to an MS OS (Windows or Mobile Windows) presence on mobile devices, their penetration into the addressable market is quite humble, to date, when compared with Apple (iOS) and Google (Android). They need to move their Apps, like it or not, onto those platforms.

Another significant reduction in future margins is the commoditization of the App!
Where we had previously paid $30-$40 for a simple app, a few decades ago, we can now get a much better version today, for free (if you sell your soul, I.e. provide access to your personal info via device location, contacts, habits. good and bad, etc., which they in turn, monetize via market data sales) or for a buck or two ($1 or $2).

So Office and Outlook on "other" OSes (iOS and Android), is inevitable; whether it is a "good" thing - for the continued democratization of technology, is yet to be seen.

 

[Kibaruk]

The old outlook app didn't even have exchange support. This looks like a whole new thing which I'll test drive in 3... 2... 1...

 

[Guest]

The death of pc LOL ... so many stupid people love using that. PC's wil always be used, they wont be going anywhere any time soon. What would take over, tablets, chromebooks or phones LMAO ... none can do what a pc can do nor will ever be powerful or big enough to take on a pc. Whatever the future is, PCs will be apart of it as will any new devices that come but none will ever replace PCs. Just like dvds will outlast any and all formats because thats what it was meant to do, last. Streaming has a long way to do if it wants to kill off dvds, everyone has tried, dvds still survive.

 

[cliffordcooley]

so many stupid people love using that.

Your lack of vision doesn't make people stupid. The only thing that will keep PC's alive is the need for more processing power than that in portable devices. PC's are no longer the go to device for the majority of processing needs, that concept shifted to phones.

What would take over, tablets, chromebooks or phones LMAO ... none can do what a pc can do nor will ever be powerful or big enough to take on a pc.

If the applications we use never need more power then yes at some point "tablets, chromebooks or phones" will be powerful enough to replace PC's. PC's will die when the masses decide they no longer need a huge box to do their processing. If you can't see this happening, you are not looking far enough into the future.