back to article Microsoft waves white flag: We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

An update to Microsoft's tablet OS Windows RT will finally add email client Outlook to fondleslabs. The news was announced by Windows chief financial and marketing officer Tami Reller during the Computex keynote in Taipei - along with more details of Windows 8.1. Windows RT is said to be a straight-up ARM-compatible processor …

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  1. JDX Gold badge

    Finally a [slim] glimmer of hope for RT... proper Office+Outlook at least makes it useful and differentiates it from the competitors for those who rely on MS stack. The price difference from Pro and the free keyboard mean if I wanted a Windows tablet, I might actually consider RT now.

    Probably still DOA rather than WOA though.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      But will this be the full-fat Office that properly runs all of those horrible VB scripts and stuff that has accumulated over the years in businesses?

      1. James Chaldecott

        VB Scripts - probably not

        I've got a Surface RT. One of the limitations on the version of Office on there is that it won't run macros.

        They might fix that, but I doubt it. I can't imagine anyone being all that keen to attempt an ARM port of the VBA runtime!

        1. JDX Gold badge

          Re: VB Scripts - probably not

          Can it not even run new macros written in whatever the modern way is... Javascript or something?

        2. Wibble
          Childcatcher

          Re: VB Scripts - probably not

          > VBA port

          Why? One can live quite happily without VBA; just look at Office 2008

        3. Anonymous Custard
          Joke

          Re: VB Scripts - probably not

          Come on, it'll take them a long lie-down in a darkened room and several months of therapy to recover from the trauma of actually having to listen to people that lead to this backtrack.

          The psychiatry bill for adding VBA support would bankrupt them...

          1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
            Trollface

            Re: VB Scripts - probably not

            The psychiatry bill for adding VBA support would bankrupt them...

            Nah, at Microsoft, this is replaced by a gleaming indestructible block of lucite with the words "VBA progammer #1" lasered into it.

            Costs 0.2 USD made in Guangzhou.

        4. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Getting really tried of MS marketing...

          Why aren't they forced to disclose that Office on RT & Cloud is not the full-featured Office. If it doesn't run macros then its crippled IMHO. Why buy it...

          1. dssf

            Re: Getting really tried of MS marketing...

            Well, here is another bit of possible MS marketing...

            http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2013/06/05/microsoft-reorganizes-itself-crafty-or-confusing/

        5. Spoonsinger
          Headmaster

          Re:" I can't imagine anyone being all that keen to attempt an ARM port of the VBA runtime!"

          Not really sure that's the issue. RT isn't really a re-skinned version of CE, it really does have it's base in the PC API. I think the thing is that the RT version has been marketed at the consumer and therefore everything has to go through the store in the way it was intended by the developer and has also gone through the MS procedure for saying that application is OK to use - and won't f**k their tablet up. Now if you start introducing the ability to actually write code on the device at the consumer level, they can't guarantee that 'people' won't start screwing with the setup - In which case you'd have to have the whole Anti-virus/Malware setup as on a normal PC.

          PS

          It's really quite easy to jail break the Surface, and dump anything coded for the ARM architecture on it. It's the ignorance of the Plebs, (erm sorry standard consumer), and the nefarious ne'er-do-wells which are dragging your experience down.

          1. Tomato42
            Trollface

            Re: I can't imagine anyone being all that keen to attempt an ARM port of the VBA runtime!"

            >Now if you start introducing the ability to actually write code on the device at the consumer level,

            > they can't guarantee that 'people' won't start screwing with the setup

            Right, forgot that Microsoft has no concept of application separation and always tries to run anything it can as the local Administrator.

            I just wonder how did they get JavaScript in IE past the radar...

  2. easytoby
    Thumb Up

    When?

    When is this available. How do I get it?

    1. Wibble

      Re: When?

      Just bend over and wait...

    2. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

      Re: When?

      Microsoft is only saying "later this year", so that's all we know for the moment.

      Bill.

  3. hplasm
    Meh

    We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

    Like that is supposed to be an improvement? Outloook!

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

      Users love Outlook!

      I've no idea why, as I've always disliked it, and obviously not all of them do, but most users seem to absolutely love it. It has got a bit less slow, cumbersome and crashy since the 90s, so I no longer loathe it with the same passion.

      1. Hungry Sean
        Paris Hilton

        Re: We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

        speaking as a luser, there are a few good things about outlook:

        1) my IT supports it and it comes on my machine ready to go so I can focus on my job rather than e-mail setup.

        2) at most other companies, it will be the same, so there's no burden of learning new and different stuff

        3) the integration with scheduling and contacts is very good (Outlooks meeting reminders are the main reason I remember anything that I schedule).

        Now if only they had a decent mode for auto-marking stuff as read. Like one where as soon as you are on top of an e-mail it is marked read, rather than the 2 second minimum, or the one where you have to move off the e-mail. . .

        Paris, because she probably knows more about e-mail setup than I do.

      2. Euripides Pants
        Meh

        Re: We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

        "Users love Outlook! I've no idea why"

        Its better than Lotus Notes.

        1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

          Re: We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

          From what I've heard, so is herpes...

          It's funny. This stuff is the most important software that 90% of office users have. And there doesn't seem to be anything decent. There are barely any nice email clients any more, let alone the full calendar/diary/contacts/mail package. Outlook is the best, at least that I've seen, of a pretty bad bunch. But even 15 years of using it doesn't mean I've grown to like it.

    2. Tom 35

      Re: We'll put Outlook on Windows RT slabs

      You have not seen the current mail app...

      They will have to REALLY screw up the Outlook port for it not to be an improvement.

  4. mark l 2 Silver badge

    Does this mean that OEMs will now get Outlook included with Windows RT or is this just Microsoft giving themselves a potential boost to the Surface at the expense of the few OEMs that bothered to make a Windows RT device?

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Surely it will be an OS upgrade available over the web.

    2. Bill Ray (Written by Reg staff)

      All Windows RT devices will get the upgrade, including those from MS and OEMs, so everyone using RT gets the same experience for better or worse.

      Bill.

  5. Captain Scarlet
    Paris Hilton

    people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets

    Hangon everyone was saying they wanted this before hand, what the point only listening after you release a product?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets

      They never got Outlook without paying for it before. Outlook Express yes.

      1. Anonymous Blowhard

        Re: people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets

        I once got a copy of Outlook bundled with a Dell Axim X51v; but you're right, MS see Outlook as a "business product" and want business-level cash for it (like how they charge several hundred notes for Office with Outlook and less than a hundred for Office without it).

        1. nichomach

          Re: people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets

          "Several hundred"'s over-egging it a little - Office Home & Business includes Outlook and that's less than £150 ex VAT.

    2. Hooksie

      Re: people want the power of Outlook on all their Windows PCs and tablets

      You're right, like how Apple released the iPhone 3G after they realised that people wanted to send MMS and a few other silly things like cut and paste. So they shouldn't have released the original iPhone, no such thing as progress, wait until everything is ready before you release it.

      Jesus H Christ.

  6. Frankee Llonnygog

    We're always listing to our customers

    Tip: next time, listen to them beforehand - that way you might avoid putting crippled products on the market in the first place

    1. Richard Plinston

      Re: We're always listing to our customers

      You are not a Microsoft customer, you may be a customer of Best Buy, or Dell, etc.

      Microsoft's customers are the OEMs and the retailers. What they want is more shiney, and other reasons for their customers to throw away everything they currently have and buy new stuff.

  7. Anonymous Custard

    Cart before the horse?

    "We're always listening to our customers,"

    Shouldn't someone tell them that they're supposed to do that before they launch the product (market research and all that new-fangled nonsense), or at least actually take on board what you're actually hearing and not ignoring it and rushing headlong regardless?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    the 3 people stupid enough to buy Windows8RT

    must be slightly less underimpressed by this non-news.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Windows RT

    Never understood them going with the name of Windows RT for ARM powered tablets / hybrids. They should've gone for something like Windows AR to signify it's on ARM processors.

    And with this Windows 8.1 release they could call it SE for Second Edition, so you'd have Windows AR SE.

    Sounds much better and more accurate than - Windows RT (which is kinda like Windows 8, but it's not Windows 8 it's RT remember!!! with erm.... Windows 8.1 upgrades)

    1. Circadian
      Trollface

      Re: Windows RT

      New marketing effort required?

      "Windows RT - now 7% less shit!"

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unusable

    When ever someone on here says to use Libre/Open Office, the chorus is "what about the automation/macros" etc. Well the shoe's on the other foot, Office on RT is obviously unusable.

    I thought Office RT was not licensed for business use either or have they u-turned on that too?

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: Unusable

      The point is MS are not suggesting you use a tablet for your main work device. Hardly a fair comparison... open a doc in RT and the macros will still work on your PC.

      1. Anonymous Custard

        Re: Unusable

        Yes but in many cases the lack of macros will mean that the document (especially if it's Excel) won't work properly. Hence whilst it may still work on your PC, you'll also have to open it there for it to be any use, which rather defeats the whole purpose of the tablet?

  11. Maharg
    WTF?

    You have got to wonder who’s bright idea it was not to include it in the first place, considering the market for this is people who want to use the tools they already use for work, why not add the same email function that most business that use the Microsoft 'bundle' also use, and I’m sure someone will say because they couldn’t get it to run, well they have now, and I refuse to believe they have discovered some new technology that magically allows them to do this where they couldn’t before, once again it looks like it was either rushed or sent out incomplete due to some marketing commitment, or they just did not think it though.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about..........

    join a domain? no?

    proper group policy support? no?

    VBA support? no?

    Still not a whole lot of use in a corporate environment then.

    1. JDX Gold badge

      Re: What about..........

      The whole point is a tablet is a device you take out of the building, that doesn't typically run internally on the corporate network, no?

      1. Anonymous Custard

        Re: What about..........

        Umm, no.

        It's a device for use in the field or such environment where operation single-handed (or at least without having to put it down on something to type on it or use a mouse/trackpad with it) would probably be more typical. But it will certainly have to talk back to the corporate network, either in real time or at least periodically in bulk-dispatch and update/sync mode.

        The last thing any corporate IT person wants is a device out there which is never sync'd, backed up and kept under the corporate policy thumb.

      2. Charles Manning
        Facepalm

        Aaah, the confusion

        The complete overhype and under delivery with these tablets is going to kill them stone dead. MS clearly don't understand what market they are chasing and what the punters want. All they're doing is seeing that Apple etc are doing something tabletty and are vaguely copying that with no strategy.

        The whole idea of a tablet + keyboard is that it replaces a laptop in the budget and can do all the laptoppy things when it needs to. You can get real work done on it. IT budgets are not going to double to give everyone a tablet as well as a laptop. Tablets will only fly if people can divert laptop budget into tablets.

        That was the same with laptops remember? The only way you got a laptop was by forgoing your desktop. Once laptops were capable enough, and cheap enough, they became ubiquitous.

        If said tablet lacks many the features required to hook to corporate networks and work with typical corporate docs, then who is really going to buy it. Nope, people will continue to get laptops.

        And what home consumer is going to buy one when there are many more thousands of apps and better devices at a better price point from Apple and Androidland? Home purchasers will be thinking back to how MS screwed them with the Zune, Kin etc. who promised a new world of features, then left them high and dry with a near worthless purchase. The MS tablets are looking pretty much the same.

        Another nail in the MS coffin, and in this case MS brought their own hammer!

  13. Captain Queeg

    Consumers? Outlook? Don't think so...

    This seems like a sideshow to me and quite a desperate one (in fact does it remind anyone else of the Playbook native email fiasco?).

    Who knows of any consumer who uses Outlook? Not me - IMO it's overkill to use Outlook unless you have an Exchange back end and need the collaboration features. I'd wager almost all consumer Windows setups use Windows Mail, Outlook Express or a good old browser to manage email.

    On the other hand, corporates should love Outlook on tablet, but Outlook and Office on RT? Again I don't think so,if you're a corporate, surely you'd want full fat X86 Windows to maintain flexibility.

    This looks like a classic Venn diagram, with a very very small overlap of users wanting RT and Outlook.

    1. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

      Re: Consumers? Outlook? Don't think so...

      Loads of consumers use Outlook. Over half of the friends' PCs that I sort out for them have it. They get small business Office with it, so they can use the stuff they know from work. Although I wouldn't vouch for how many of them have valid licenses...

      It's amazing that people who can barely switch a PC on seem to be able to get hooky Office installed, no trouble.

  14. Don Jefe

    Finance & Marketing

    Who had the insane idea of making the chief of marketing and finance the same person. Those are two diametrically opposed roles; one is supposed to engender desire in the customer-base and the other is the single most boring thing imaginable. Kind of like building a solar powered plane but covering up the PV panels with duct tape to protect the investment.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "We're always listening to our customers"

    but always too late

  16. MACWINLINO
    Facepalm

    About bladdy time

    Regardless of what one thinks of Windows RT. It shocks me that MS didn't include Outlook in the first place. What were they thinking? Of cause want to do emails on a "mobile device" especially those that know Outlook from their work PC's.

    I personally advised two people from not purchasing a Windows RT tablet because of lacking Outlook (they are MS Office freaks)

    Now please allow some basic macros on this and then it might be more attractive.

  17. Hooksie

    I just want to scream and shake the lot of you

    WINDOWSRT IS FOR PLAYING ABOUT ON LIKE AN IPAD, NOT FOR DOING ALL YOUR WORK ON. How many different ways would you like this put?? The mail client on the WindowsRT OS is perfectly fine, and a damn site better than the one on the iPad or Android. I got an RT tablet just the other week when Dell reduced the XPS to £249 and I expected to hate it after all the crap it gets but you know what? I've given the iPad 3 to my wife because this does everything the iPad does (for me anyway, I don't play games much) but more and better. Almost full browser, (only omission is Silverlight) plays videos, joins the homegroup of my home PC, multitasking, app snapping, MS Music Pass etc etc.

    The trolls who whine on about RT, how many of you clowns have actually USED it? Come on, hands up....OK, now put your hand down if you used it for 2 seconds then dismissed it.......OK, the rest of you with your hands still up, you can comment, everyone else is just an opinion with no basis in fact.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I just want to scream and shake the lot of you

      You must be feeling pretty lonely, aren't you ? Oh, and there's no need to scream, there's nobody around here with you.

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Headmaster

        Re: I just want to scream and shake the lot of you

        ...and a damn site better than...

        PLEASE!

        It's "sight".

        1. UKHobo
          Big Brother

          Re: I just want to scream and shake the lot of you

          fixed: it's shite

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ...'many users naively think'...

    ...."free smartphone apps and social networks are good Samaritans giving them something for free, rather than making money by selling ads on the basis of harvesting users' personal data."

    Barnum (or his competitor) :- "There's a Sucker Born Every Minute". So that's one security problem that'll continue ad-infinitum...

  19. gnufrontier

    Consumer vs Enterprise

    Apple is a consumer electronics company. Microsoft is an enterprise software vendor.

    RT was Microsoft trying to get additional market share in the consumer electronics space with something besides their game console. The only people really interested in RT however were enterprise oriented.

    Mass consumer slab people have no interest in Outlook. It's inclusion now is a response to criticism from the enterprise side which doesn't really want a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment. Enterprises remember what happened when PC's first entered corporations. It wasn't long before IT had to get involved to corral all the cats. Now that everything is tied into the corporate network again with computing being controlled and dictated by IT, they don't want to go back to having to deal with a variety of consumer devices which they have not endorsed being used in business operations. They want a slab to pacify their employees and they want one that will enable their employees to work within the IT environment as it now exists and which for many is a Microsoft shop or at the least uses Microsoft applications.

    That's my two cents for what it's worth.

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