http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/19/technology/personaltech/microsoft-has-suddenly-gotten-serious-with-mobile.html?_r=0
I might have to download the outlook app for my work phone, and possibly personal phone soon to check them out. Very smart decision IMO
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MICROSOFT is suddenly a powerful presence on my phone.
Yes, you read that right. This is the same Microsoft that spent almost a half-decade trying to offer a credible alternative to Apple's iPhone and mobile devices running Google's Android. And it's the same Microsoft that paid more than $7 billion to buy Nokia's once-mighty handset business, only to see its mobile business sink further. The company now clings precariously to a 3 percent share of new smartphone sales.
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That reality has finally sunk in at Microsoft, and a new strategy is afoot. When Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, took the top job at the company about a year ago, he signaled that the company's priorities were shifting. Microsoft, he said, was in a "mobile-first, cloud-first world."
Since then, the company has brought more of its apps and services to the Apple and Android devices people actually use, rather than the ones Microsoft would like them to use -- those that run Windows.
What's even more surprising is that Microsoft's heart seems to be in the effort.
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The new Outlook is not Microsoft's work, exactly. The app is mostly a rebranding of Acompli, an existing app made by a start-up that Microsoft acquired in December for $200 million. But there is no shame in using acquisitions to inject new talent and technology into a company. Facebook, Google and Amazon all employ a similar strategy.
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The fact that Microsoft released the new Outlook in late January, when the ink was barely dry on its Acompli deal, is a clear sign of how quickly the company feels it needs to move in the mobile business. Last week, the company bought the maker of Sunrise, a popular mobile calendar app, suggesting that Microsoft has no plans to let up on its deal-making.
I might have to download the outlook app for my work phone, and possibly personal phone soon to check them out. Very smart decision IMO