There has been a lot of speculation about the iPhone and its abilities to connect to Microsoft Exchange Server. For instance, Wall Street Journal columnist Walt Mossberg mentions in his June 26 All...
Updated Jul 01, 2019
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"EAS is a protocol that provides rich messaging experiences for over 200 different smartphones right out of the box. These smartphones include Windows Mobile devices as well as phones from a broad range of 3rd parties including Helio, Motorola, Nokia, Palm, Sony Ericsson and others." And Microsoft is enriched by the sales of all of them. Those saying that Apple should license ActiveSync need to explain why Microsoft deserves any piece of the iPhone pie. Is it because they somehow deserve a premium for their work on Exchange? Yes, all those features may sound nice (though when I've been forced to use an Outlook/Exchange system, I've been underwhelmed - the client, at least pre-Vista when I was forced to use it, was decidedly mediocre-ware), but a company building email servers in a truly competitive market would be working to create compatibility with the iPhone out of the gate.
Microsoft's only advantage is that, because they managed to lock many, many businesses into Exchange back when their hegemony on the desktop was taken for granted, they are still in a position to exert some control over the devices and software people in those (unfortunate) businesses use to read their email. But many people are beginning to awaken to the idea that they can ask for more from their software than whatever garbage MS, and by extension their IT department, sees fit to shovel to them.
Adoption of Apple's innovative client will drive demand for compatibility from IT departments. If MS cannot deliver server products that offer all the "features" you say are so important in a way that's compatible with new clients without licensing, someone will. And guess what - this time people might actually adopt it. See iPods. (And don't even bother arguing that the vertical integration there is anything like the mess you've created with Exchange. It's content producers who insisted on the DRM "lock-in." As soon as they, as some have already, relent, DRM's removed.) Upshot: try competing on quality - for once. While Apple might indeed license EAS this time, bowing to the extant but waning stranglehold MS still has on the enterprise, it's a rent that won't keep coming.
Microsoft's only advantage is that, because they managed to lock many, many businesses into Exchange back when their hegemony on the desktop was taken for granted, they are still in a position to exert some control over the devices and software people in those (unfortunate) businesses use to read their email. But many people are beginning to awaken to the idea that they can ask for more from their software than whatever garbage MS, and by extension their IT department, sees fit to shovel to them.
Adoption of Apple's innovative client will drive demand for compatibility from IT departments. If MS cannot deliver server products that offer all the "features" you say are so important in a way that's compatible with new clients without licensing, someone will. And guess what - this time people might actually adopt it. See iPods. (And don't even bother arguing that the vertical integration there is anything like the mess you've created with Exchange. It's content producers who insisted on the DRM "lock-in." As soon as they, as some have already, relent, DRM's removed.) Upshot: try competing on quality - for once. While Apple might indeed license EAS this time, bowing to the extant but waning stranglehold MS still has on the enterprise, it's a rent that won't keep coming.