Microsoft said to be testing Windows RT Outlook client

File this one in the "sources said" folder, but I've now heard from three of my contacts that Microsoft has completed and is testing internally a version of Outlook that runs on Windows RT-based devices.

This "Outlook RT" would run on Microsoft's ARM-based Surface RT devices, as well as any/all other ARM-based Windows RT tablets and PCs.

Here's the catch, though: According to two of these three sources, when/whether Microsoft will make Office RT commercially available is not yet decided. This might not ever happen, these sources stressed.

Again, according to these sources, there's supposedly some internal back-and-forth between different teams as to whether Microsoft should or shouldn't release Outlook RT.

Microsoft currently has its own Mail client for Windows 8 and Windows RT -- a product that is not seen as very robust or solid by many of us Surface RT/Windows RT users. The Windows RT Mail client is not even as good as the Mail client that's part of Windows Phone, many of us feel.

Quite a few of us would rather have the option to run Outlook on our Surface RTs and other Windows RT devices. But for now, Microsoft doesn't include Outlook as part of the Office Home & Student 2013 RT suite that it bundles with the Windows RT operating system. Only Word RT, Excel RT, PowerPoint RT and OneNote RT are included. (It's worth noting that these four apps are Desk... [Read more]





by Mary Jo Foley via CNET