Microsoft just announced that starting next year, they will replace Entourage by an Outlook version in their Office for Mac 2010. When I first heard of Entourage on the Mac, I was wandering: what is that? I was at the time a Mac switcher, and was used to use Outlook and Outlook Express on the PC, but Entourage, never heard of such a program.
The fact that Microsoft is considering to align the 2 products line (PC and Mac Office) to have the same name for all included software, is a good thing for switchers as well as for enterprise that wish to have a Mac based users integrated in their network infrastructure. For the users that wants to buy Office for Mac and are already familiar with Outlook on the PC, the transition will be easier. For the enterprise, the Mac may become less of a pain to maintain as they will have to support, basically, only one email client.
With Snow Leopard that will also support the Exchange infrastructure, the Mac will then become more and more attractive to the enterprises. Will Outlook arrival help? Sure. IT staff may appreciate the fact that Mail will support Exchange servers, but the help desk will more than appreciate the fact that both PC and Mac users can use the same email client. It reduces support peoples training, and users can help each other when using the same software, even on different platform.
Is the fact that Apple announced Snow Leopard to support Exchange a trigger that helped Microsoft make that move? I’ll say yes. For Microsoft, it is an advantage over Apple to offer the same suite to enterprises on both PC and Mac. I just hope that Outlook for Mac will bare a more easy to use interface than the one on the PC. Sometimes just finding a simple option in the interface can be though in Outlook. I also wish that Microsoft will take some of Mail simplicity in Outlook for Mac. Overall, the software on PC is really made for professional business email reading and classification. The Mac version should be at least as good.
Personally, at home, I always uses Outlook Express on the PC, and Mail.app on the Mac. I will keep Mail. I like the simplicity of it, the flexibility are enough for my uses, and anyway, I buy iWork, not Office, for my personal usage too. And Mail is free!
