Entelligence: Will Snow Leopard's Exchange support earn Apple a new entourage?
By Michael Gartenberg 
posted August 26th 2009 9:00PM
posted August 26th 2009 9:00PM
Entelligence is a column by technology strategist and author Michael Gartenberg, a man whose desire for a delicious cup of coffee and a quality New York bagel is dwarfed only by his passion for tech. In these articles, he'll explore where our industry is and where it's going -- on both micro and macro levels -- with the unique wit and insight only he can provide.
Apple, Microsoft and the Mac have an interesting history: Microsoft was among the first developers for Macintosh, yet not long after, Apple would sue Microsoft for copying the look and feel of Mac OS in Windows. By the late 90s, Microsoft made a huge splash at Macworld with an announced 150 million dollar investment in Apple and promises of further development of Office and Internet Explorer for Macintosh. Office in particular was a major issue as it was a key requirement for business users. Early on, Office applications for Mac were far more advanced than their Windows counterparts. Excel was actually introduced for Mac users before Windows users could get their hands on it. But by the mid 90s, all that changed, the Mac versions of Office lagged behind Windows in terms of features and performance. It took forever to get things such as a common set of file formats, so that users of Office on the two different platforms could exchange documents with ease (it seems like something we take for granted but having managed and supported PC and Mac users in mixed shops, it was a nightmare to deal with). The latest version of Office for Mac, Office 2008 showed that Microsoft could produce top quality Macintosh software. I personally, think Office 2008 for Mac is the best version of the software that Microsoft has ever done (far better than Office 2007 for Windows, as it preserved the core part of the Mac UI while co-existing nicely with the ribbon UI). Obviously, however, a situation with such broad inconsistency is untenable.
It was clear that given the uneven quality of Office through the years, Apple might want to invest in its own offerings for Mac users and not be forced to rely on Microsoft to deliver key applications and services to the platform. Early on there was ClarisWorks for Macintosh (later renamed AppleWorks, an all in one integrated application) but it was clear AppleWorks was not enough. When Apple introduced Keynote for presentations, it was obvious to most that word processing and spreadsheets could not be far behind. They weren't, and over the years Apple added those applications and created their own productivity suite called iLife. The problem for Mac users in a business environment was one key feature. The ability to work with Exchange servers for corporate mail, calendar and contacts. For years, Windows users have had Outlook as the integrated client to handle that task as part of Office. Mac users had nothing. Over the years Microsoft added a roughly equivalent program called Entourage. I say roughly equivalent because it was buggy, slow and often created odd data errors (I'd regularly find some, not all, of my appointments moved off by one day -- about as bad as it gets for a calendaring program). Unfortunately, for Mac users, there wasn't much of a choice. It was Entourage or nothing for Exchange support. That is, until Apple introduced Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard adds in integrated Exchange support as a key feature and for users who need to connect Exchange servers -- and it's a reason to upgrade all by itself.
I've been using Snow Leopard for a few weeks now with our corporate Exchange server and I'm pleased to report: it just works. Simply (far easier to configure Snow Leopard to work with our Exchange server than to set up a new copy of Outlook). Within moments of entering my email address and password, all my calendar items, contacts, email, and to-do lists were integrated into the appropriate Snow Leopard apps. I haven't had a single problem with the configuration. As many reviews have pointed out, Snow Leopard has a lot of nice features but Exchange support may prove to be a killer app for Apple in helping to drive business sales -- as well as help blunt a lot of the marketing hype around Windows 7. I can't overstate how important Exchange support is. For me -- as user who's used both platforms for years -- I've been constrained to using Windows mostly because Exchange worked so much better than Entourage did. With the introduction of the latest version of iLife and Snow Leopard, I find I'm not just doing my creative stuff on the Mac, but am able to fully migrate my business use as well (I'll talk about my lessons as a swticher sometime in the future).
It's shaping up to be an interesting fall for operating systems (and of course computer sales). Apple and Microsoft are going head to head directly with new OS releases within weeks of each other. It will be interesting to see how the market will react to adopting both at once. Right now, I'm more inclined to recommend Mac owners running either Tiger or Leopard upgrade to Snow Leopard (especially when it comes to businesses -- certainly more than I would suggest XP or Vista users to make the leap to Windows 7).
In my opinion, if you're running Leopard, the upgrade to Snow Leopard is easily worth the $29 (or $49 family license). For business users, the Exchange support is worth more than the cost of the upgrade. Even at the $169 price point for Tiger users, it's a pretty strong value with the inclusion of media software of iLife, office productivity software iWork and of course, the OS itself. In fact, this is where it gets interesting. For Mac users to want to get Microsoft Office for Mac with Exchange support, that SKU has a price tag of $399. Just the Student and Home version of Mac Office is $149, that of course wouldn't include Snow Leopard (and Exchange support or the latest version of iLife). Apple's inclusion of Exchange support directly into the OS has effectively reduced the price of that feature to zero dollars. As an aside, it's ironic that Apple offers Exchange support directly with OS X now, while Windows 7 users will still need to purchase a copy of Outlook to connect to their corporate email. Apple now has a fully credible business offering with applications and support for all major corporate protocols. Combined with an OS platform that encourages in place upgrades -- as opposed to formatting your hard drive an starting from scratch -- you have some pretty strong competition for the folks in Redmond.
Don't get me wrong, I think Windows 7 is a fine upgrade and perhaps the best version of Windows Microsoft has ever done (the Vista that should have shipped, really). It's just that the upgrade is priced far too high in my opinion relative to the value it offers, especially when combined with a challenging upgrade process -- most notably for those users looking to upgrade from XP.
In the end, there's a lot to like about Snow Leopard (as we've seen in today's reviews), but it's the integrated Exchange support that's likely to drive an entirely new set of customers to the platform. As for existing Mac users, they now have one less reason to do business with Microsoft, as Apple removes one more barrier for platform adoption.
Michael Gartenberg is vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net, and he can be emailed at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
It was clear that given the uneven quality of Office through the years, Apple might want to invest in its own offerings for Mac users and not be forced to rely on Microsoft to deliver key applications and services to the platform. Early on there was ClarisWorks for Macintosh (later renamed AppleWorks, an all in one integrated application) but it was clear AppleWorks was not enough. When Apple introduced Keynote for presentations, it was obvious to most that word processing and spreadsheets could not be far behind. They weren't, and over the years Apple added those applications and created their own productivity suite called iLife. The problem for Mac users in a business environment was one key feature. The ability to work with Exchange servers for corporate mail, calendar and contacts. For years, Windows users have had Outlook as the integrated client to handle that task as part of Office. Mac users had nothing. Over the years Microsoft added a roughly equivalent program called Entourage. I say roughly equivalent because it was buggy, slow and often created odd data errors (I'd regularly find some, not all, of my appointments moved off by one day -- about as bad as it gets for a calendaring program). Unfortunately, for Mac users, there wasn't much of a choice. It was Entourage or nothing for Exchange support. That is, until Apple introduced Snow Leopard. Snow Leopard adds in integrated Exchange support as a key feature and for users who need to connect Exchange servers -- and it's a reason to upgrade all by itself.
I've been using Snow Leopard for a few weeks now with our corporate Exchange server and I'm pleased to report: it just works. Simply (far easier to configure Snow Leopard to work with our Exchange server than to set up a new copy of Outlook). Within moments of entering my email address and password, all my calendar items, contacts, email, and to-do lists were integrated into the appropriate Snow Leopard apps. I haven't had a single problem with the configuration. As many reviews have pointed out, Snow Leopard has a lot of nice features but Exchange support may prove to be a killer app for Apple in helping to drive business sales -- as well as help blunt a lot of the marketing hype around Windows 7. I can't overstate how important Exchange support is. For me -- as user who's used both platforms for years -- I've been constrained to using Windows mostly because Exchange worked so much better than Entourage did. With the introduction of the latest version of iLife and Snow Leopard, I find I'm not just doing my creative stuff on the Mac, but am able to fully migrate my business use as well (I'll talk about my lessons as a swticher sometime in the future).
For business users, the Exchange support is worth more than the cost of the upgrade to Snow Leopard. |
It's shaping up to be an interesting fall for operating systems (and of course computer sales). Apple and Microsoft are going head to head directly with new OS releases within weeks of each other. It will be interesting to see how the market will react to adopting both at once. Right now, I'm more inclined to recommend Mac owners running either Tiger or Leopard upgrade to Snow Leopard (especially when it comes to businesses -- certainly more than I would suggest XP or Vista users to make the leap to Windows 7).
In my opinion, if you're running Leopard, the upgrade to Snow Leopard is easily worth the $29 (or $49 family license). For business users, the Exchange support is worth more than the cost of the upgrade. Even at the $169 price point for Tiger users, it's a pretty strong value with the inclusion of media software of iLife, office productivity software iWork and of course, the OS itself. In fact, this is where it gets interesting. For Mac users to want to get Microsoft Office for Mac with Exchange support, that SKU has a price tag of $399. Just the Student and Home version of Mac Office is $149, that of course wouldn't include Snow Leopard (and Exchange support or the latest version of iLife). Apple's inclusion of Exchange support directly into the OS has effectively reduced the price of that feature to zero dollars. As an aside, it's ironic that Apple offers Exchange support directly with OS X now, while Windows 7 users will still need to purchase a copy of Outlook to connect to their corporate email. Apple now has a fully credible business offering with applications and support for all major corporate protocols. Combined with an OS platform that encourages in place upgrades -- as opposed to formatting your hard drive an starting from scratch -- you have some pretty strong competition for the folks in Redmond.
Don't get me wrong, I think Windows 7 is a fine upgrade and perhaps the best version of Windows Microsoft has ever done (the Vista that should have shipped, really). It's just that the upgrade is priced far too high in my opinion relative to the value it offers, especially when combined with a challenging upgrade process -- most notably for those users looking to upgrade from XP.
In the end, there's a lot to like about Snow Leopard (as we've seen in today's reviews), but it's the integrated Exchange support that's likely to drive an entirely new set of customers to the platform. As for existing Mac users, they now have one less reason to do business with Microsoft, as Apple removes one more barrier for platform adoption.
Michael Gartenberg is vice president of strategy and analysis at Interpret, LLC. His weblog can be found at gartenblog.net, and he can be emailed at gartenberg AT gmail DOT com. Views expressed here are his own.
Note that the author is not a switcher, but a "swticher".
This is a combination of "switcher" and "tic" - you've migrated from Windows to Mac, but the occasional thing that doesn't work correctly causes an involuntary eye movement born of annoyance.
Yes - I do like a spell checker... swticher doesn't really do it for me either. (note to author, do a find and replace for swticher to switcher)
I've been really impressed with the Snow Leopard support for Exchange 2007 (and Cisco VPN). It's not 100% native (shared resource, appointments, etc are still a little off), it won't replace Outlook 2007 for day to day use, but for having my email/calendar open at home, it sure beats OWA on 2007 w/ FireFox or Safari. It's the same thing as the iPhone's EAS support; it's not the best in the world, but it really does it tie the whole package together.
As an IT department, we're recommending that users buy iPhone/iPod Touches at this point over Windows Mobile devices or Blackberries. Everyone in IT is running iPhones now that it does EAS. It may seem like a small thing, but EAS is a trojan horse for Apple.
wait wait wait, so Microsoft used to own Apple?! anywhere else i can read up on this?
It didn't use to own but Microsoft has bought shared of Apple.
They made a huge investment that saved the company.
Yet Apple still rubbishes MS as it always has.
MS does not own Apple in any way. Due to a Quicktime lawsuit in which MS used QT code in Windows Media Player, MS paid off Apple to drop it by giving them a large undisclosed amount of cash and made a public show of support to Apple by purchasing $150 million of non-voting stock.
Also, it didn't save Apple, because they haven't needed saving. Apple has always kept an extremely healthy cash and short-term investment portfolio for emergencies, which was around $4billion at the time of these transactions.
Now, wouldnt it be nice if microsoft tossed out an upgrade that blocked macs from using exchange? hmm? a little taste of their own medicine?
The difference is that Apple is paying Microsoft for the privileged most likely - unlike palm trying to fool itunes.
That being said I still think Apple would say no to palm if it asked nicely.
Pah, Microsoft should throw that money back at Steve Jobs' face and tell him to sod off.
It makes me wonder about MS strategy.
Get more users using and being reliant on Exchange server and removing the barriers stopping a lot of users switching the Macs and iPhones. I can only see a situation where these services get better and better on the Apple side of things so why in a business context limit yourself to windows?
Curious - or am I looking at this from a too shallow point of view and there are more positives for MS?
Remember that like at most large companies each group at Microsoft has to pay-their-way, so the exchange/activesynch guys have to bring home the bacon to justify their existence. So they sell an activesynch license for every iPhone and now presumably every copy of snow leopard. Well, while I am sure it is heavily volume discounted (despite apple having a smallish share of computers, it is a small slice of a ginormous pie) it is probably a very nice addition to their group's bottom line, thereby making their budget look good.
Sony had similar issues with selling players and then media divisions selling version of their media on iTunes which wouldn't load on their own players and encouraged folks to buy apple hardware. While I am sure the guys in the walkman division complained, the media guys probably said "that's great, we currently sell $X via iTunes, are you going to transfer that much to our budget from your division? No? well then go away".
From a corporate standpoint, it's not like apple's adding activesynch is going to push windows out of the corporate world, and in fact could push more sites to use exchange (like mac only shops for instance).
Why do I get the feeling that all of these Exchange/email/Entourage discussions make about as much sense today as 1994 discussions about the importance of FAX messaging?
Email is dead, most of us just don't know that yet.
Email is dead? And will be replaced by what...Twitter? Facebook?
Please. Email isn't going anywhere anytime soon. There is no viable alternative on the horizon.
Yes Whitney, email is dead. IPv6 will be the final nail in the coffin. Do you remember all of the money and effort companies invested in "FAX servers" and FAX-back systems? How many of them are operating today?
The future of messaging is evolving, but the use of email servers and services will be essentially dead in five years.
The secret of Exchange's success is that it is far from just e-mail. But whatever the future of messaging is, even if you're right, it'll likely be wrapped up into Exchange at some point anyway.
"I personally, think Office 2008 for Mac is the best version of the software that Microsoft has ever done (far better than Office 2007 for Windows" - i personally, think that a guy who says so must be a total monkey or wants to be beaten.
If you want to see what Microsoft is doing to their next powerpoint to compete with Keynote you can see it at this video link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrBd_V7gXQ4
Looks pretty on par to keynote imo. I'm running the technical preview right now and it's great.
That's great news about PPT. Keep up the good work! Redmond's leading-edge best is usually "on par" with something Apple released three years ago.
Great review. I'm looking forward to trying Snow Leopard for myself, especially the Exchange support.
What exactly do you mean by "far easier to configure Snow Leopard to work with our Exchange server than to set up a new copy of Outlook"? I imagine you are not comparing "installing Outlook + setting up an Exchange account in that newly installed copy" versus "configuring Snow Leopard to connect to Exchange"? My understanding of your article is that the account creation process in Snow Leopard is easier to complete than its Outlook counterpart.
Anybody know if it will support RPC over HTTP?
Agreed, he doesn't know what he's talking about.
I was posting to the thread below...
Am I the only one that thinks this Michael Gartenberg guy's articles suck?
No...he's pretentious jackass who doesn't know what he's talking about. Personally I think he's pulled one over Engadget and his self-proclaimed "technology strategist" is a complete hogwash.
His article does suck. He forgets to mention the big kicker here, Exchange 2007 required! This is a pretty big point, as most businesses/universities have no migrated to 07 yet.
I have to take issue with the assertion that it's "far easier to configure Snow Leopard to work with our Exchange server than to set up a new copy of Outlook"
Starting from ground zero (no Office installation at all), this is all you need to "setup a new copy of Outlook"
1. Install Office. Hard to imagine as it may be, this is no more difficult than clicking Next a few times and possibly entering a license key.
2. Launch Outlook from the Start menu.
3. When it first launches, you're prompted to either enter an email address/password combo (for webmail usage) or manually configure an Exchange account. Manual configuration involves entering THREE PIECES OF INFORMATION: Exchange server name, user name, password.
[And in a typical Windows/Active Directory environment, you're already logged on to a domain so you don't even need to know the user name or password. You just type a few letters of the last name, click Check Name, and it finds you in the LDAP database.]
That's it. You're done. A few seconds later, Outlook has your calendar, contacts, email, and whatever the fuck else you have on the server.
I do this every day at work. It's not hard.
um, not to split hairs here, but to set up exchange in snow leopard:
1. Launch Mail.app from the dock
2. Enter three pieces of information, exchange server, username password.
that's it, you're done. now, i'm no expert, but that seems easier to me.
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Though I admit, I am a fairly new mac user, I have been in IT support for over 14 years. I installed Office 2008 and love my Entourage. I admit, Outlook is a little better, but, Entourage so far has worked perfectly for me. I have not seen any issues with it (knock on wood). As far as the actual Office Suite, I do not use Office (Word, Excel, PPT) enough to really be able to provide a good opinion, but as far as Entourage goes, I think it is great, so far.