Although yesterday was a big day for Apple, Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) -- a new iPhone and lower pricing all being announced -- there were some other interesting developments as well. Apple's upcoming Snow Leopard operating system will gain built-in support for Microsoft Corporation's (NASDAQ: MSFT) Exchange server environment. In other words, some folks using Mac PCs in a business environment will no longer need the Microsoft's Office (which includes Outlook) package.Microsoft hasn't been friendly to the Mac productivity software universe for some time, and it seems Apple wants to play more on the business desktop more than ever as an actual alternative to Microsoft's Windows operating system. Add Apple's upcoming support for Exchange to a full-featured office software suit like OpenOffice, and there are probably thousands of corporate candidates who will no longer need Microsoft's Office software suite.
Could you survive using a non-Microsoft way to get to your corporate email, calendar and address book? There are tons of web-based alternatives, but for security and other reasons, legions of businesses still rely on (and pay for) a Microsoft Exchange server. Now that Macs will be able to natively access that same data outside of a Windows environment, Apple's shrewd move here is well-timed to ensure the company continues upping its market share in the PC world, and in the business PC world specifically. Well done, Apple.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-09-2009 @ 5:51PM
itguy08 said...
Like most smart companies, we use the best E-mail platform, Lotus Notes. Outlook and Exchange is a POS and deserve the trash bin.
So this "feature" is useless to me and the millions others that don't use the Garbage known as Outlook.