Microsoft yesterday pitched its Outlook.com email service to users of Gmail dismayed by
Google's decision to abandon a popular enterprise synchronization service next month for new customers.
Last week, Google announced it would
phase out synchronization via Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync (EAS), which companies like Apple and Google license from their Redmond, Wash. rival to push email to smartphones and tablets, and sync calendar entries and contacts on multiple devices.
EAS is popular because of the widespread use of Microsoft's Exchange email server in business.
Google's Sync, which relies on EAS, will be limited to existing free accounts and paying Google Apps customers as of Jan. 30, 2013. Consumers won't be able to set up sync on new devices on or after that date.
Because Android mobile devices are unaffected and Google is pushing iOS users to adopt its stand-alone mobile apps -- which take care of synchronization using open standard protocols -- the odd-man-out is Microsoft. Google has already announced that it
won't develop Windows 8 or Windows RT apps for Gmail, Google Drive and other Google Apps for the foreseeable future.
