Non-Microsoft Client Device Use Increasing for Hosted Exchange
Posted on Mon, Oct 25, 2010 @ 06:53 PM
I am, perhaps unsurprisingly, seeing a definite uptick in customers who choose to use Apple products – iPhone, iPad, Macintosh – as their client device to access our cloud platform of business applications. The level of integration with, and support for, Microsoft applications on the broader Apple platforms has increased significantly, and kudos to both companies for taking the high road in helping our joint customers be successful.
Of particular note on Mac OSX is the native support of the Mac Mail client for Microsoft Exchange, allowing customers to choose between Mac Mail and Entourage according to their business needs. The iPhone ActiveSync mail software has similarly been improved and provides a great user experience for customers using this smartphone for synchronizing their mailbox. Apple Mac users will soon have yet another choice with Outlook 2011 for the Mac released as beta, and shipping in production early in 2011.
All of this is not to say that we have not seen some compatibility issues from time to time, however these are becoming less common as Microsoft and Apple both continue to improve the integration between their offerings.
Here at Chinook Communications we are proud to support a range of client hardware devices. Our hosted Exchange works with multiple platforms – Outlook, Web browsers, Mac, Linux. Hosted SharePoint works well across multiple browsers, regardless of operating system. Hosted Office Communications Server supports both Mac and PC. Hosted Dynamics CRM does still require Internet Explorer, but there are some workarounds for Mac Users – Parallels, Cross-Over from Codeweavers.com, VM Workstation from VMware are all examples – and similar products work on Linux as well.
All in all I consider that interoperability is improving, which is good news for not just our customers but every business user in the world.