back to article Fanbois get Outlook app for iOS, but only if they sign up for Office 365

Microsoft has released an iOS version of the Outlook Web App that improves performance and adds new features for mobile devices. The catch? You'll need to be an Office 365 subscriber to use it. "Our goal is to help our customers remain productive anytime, anywhere.  This includes providing a great email experience on …

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  1. Ted Treen
    Thumb Down

    Translation...

    "..."Our goal is to help our customers remain productive anytime, anywhere..."

    Productive, that is, for Redmond's cash-flow...

    1. dogged
      Stop

      Re: Translation...

      I imagine that the shareholders would complain if it were "productive for Apple's cashflow".

      Did you want free Outlook on your iPhone? Did you think MS would improve a different phone platform at the expense of their own? You must think they're as stupid as.... well... you.

      1. JDX Gold badge

        Re: Translation...

        Well it depends if their goal is to promote W8 or their cloudy stuff. The former could be done by releasing nothing for iOS at all and saying "get a Surface"

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Translation...

      Thanks, for a second there I thought Microsoft had become a charity providing free stuff to people.

    3. RealFred

      Re: Translation...

      And how is this different from many of the other apps on there that give you the app for free but charge you to use the backend services

  2. SmarterThanTheAverageBear

    "This includes providing a great email experience on smartphones and tablets..."

    Is there such a thing as a great email experience?

    Where can I find one?

    1. Big-nosed Pengie
      Trollface

      I assume that a "great email experience" is one that says something like "Hi. I am nice Russian girl 18. I like to meet you for naked fun. Here is pictures of me."

    2. JDX Gold badge

      I'm not sure a great email experience exists, but terrible ones certainly do... try using one of those free webmail from your ISP a few years back and see how great gmail/outlook.com/outlook seems in comparison

      1. Michael Habel

        Actually the Inbox of my ISP issued eMail is pretty dry. the only thing that lands there are the Monthly Log(s), that My Router sends to it. Great for comparing outgoing Calls to my Bill and to see how much Bandwidth I burned up that Month. As for actual Spam I do occasionally get the Fleabay and Paypal crap. Nothing much worse then that. 'Cause that kinda crap goes straight into @hotmail.com.

        That's why!

  3. Steve Knox
    Trollface

    "Our goal is to help our customers remain productive anytime, anywhere. "

    That's why we're making sure our Exchange customers who have iPhones continue to use the perfectly acceptable mail client on the iPhone by crippling our Outlook app so it won't work with their servers. That way they won't be tempted to waste time installing an app that for the most part just reproduces functionality already on the phone...

    1. Anonymous Coward 15

      reproduces functionality already on the phone

      They'll ban it then.

  4. Kenneth3

    Outlook is for Fanbois?

    Funny, I thought almost ALL of the Fortune 500 companies relied on Exchange and Outlook.

    1. Franklin
      Thumb Down

      Re: Outlook is for Fanbois?

      Sure, but how many of those Fortune 500 companies are using Micosoft-hosted Office 365 servers, vs. their own servers?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Outlook is for Fanbois?

        "Sure, but how many of those Fortune 500 companies are using Micosoft-hosted Office 365 servers, vs. their own servers?"

        Over 50% of them have at least some Office 365!

  5. adnim

    This has nothing to do with

    providing Outlook for iOS.

    It's all about flogging Office 365 subscriptions.

    Sorry for stating the obvious.

    1. James 51

      Re: This has nothing to do with

      No need to be sorry.

    2. Wade Burchette

      Re: This has nothing to do with

      And the more Microsoft tries to push subscriptions, the more people will want alternatives. Microsoft is killing the golden goose in more ways than one and they are too stubborn to listen to the people telling them they are making big mistakes.

  6. Mark Fenton

    But why even use the app?

    The support built into iOS is pretty comprehensive - no need for anything else. The only thing the native app doesn't support is tasks - and, as they say, there is an app for that.

  7. HipposRule

    ?

    Anyone found the app in iTunes? (UK)

    1. rock-lobster

      Re: ?

      Yeah but it took me a while. It's rather confusingly called OWA for iPhone

      https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/owa-for-iphone/id659503543?mt=8

  8. Michael Habel

    Much like MicroSoft with there Media Center Software, which doesn't (or didn't do at the time), DVB-C DVB-S2. I will just have to find an alternative that does. Thankfully Linux has about as many ways to tackle that, as you could shake a Stick at. I'm highly confident that if Linux currently has no decent Exchange alternative available right now, it will have One soon.

    Why MicroSoft keep insisting to shoot themselves in the Foot beggars belief.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hope it's better than OSX's Outlook

    I used to say that Outlook / Exchange was MS's only decent piece of software. Then I got Outlook on my Mac. Utter shite.

    It has none of the usability of the PC version. Shared inboxes are only half implemented. Rules go all over the place. Moving email between folders en masse seems to involve the copy happening locally only and then waiting to sync so you get a massive upload of data to a server that's already got it. Shared calendars don't seem to work outside of Outlook. It creates it's own Address Book group so I can no longer sync with my 'phone. Etc, etc. Typical half-arsed MS bollocks. I shouldn't be disappointed that they reverted to mean but am.

    1. KroSha
      FAIL

      Re: Hope it's better than OSX's Outlook

      Be thankful that you didn't have to use the abortion-in-progress that was Entourage. When MS shifted to OSX and abandoned Outlook For Mac (OS9) I didn't think it could get any worse. It did.

      Outlook for Mac (OSX) is several steps better than both of these, but still horrendous compared with the basic interoperability built in to iOS and OSX.

      And the remote wipe feature works in iOS Mail as well, administered from OWA.

  10. Fuzz

    missed a trick

    Microsoft should be releasing this as a full email client to try and encourage iPhone users onto windows phone. I guess if they gave it full support Apple wouldn't allow it in the store, but full exchange support would be good.

    Microsoft are hoping that people will subscribe to 365 so they can get the app but it just won't work this way. You need to give people the app first and then if it's good enough some people will want to try windows phone or 365 off the back of that.

    1. davidp231

      Re: missed a trick

      They could start by putting a decent email client on WP8... that'd be a start - the one it currently has is pants - you can only attach images to emails. Instead they expect you to email links to your Skydrive to share documents.

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