Escalating the Desktop War, Microsoft Embraces the Web
Against Steve Job’s wishes, iTunes was released for Windows in 2003. The move skyrocketed iPod sales into a completely different universe. Yet, Steve Jobs nudged Microsoft so much so as to term it the best app written for Windows.
Something happened yesterday that betrayed that deja-vu feeling: Microsoft, as part of its flagship Project Monarch announced that it will move the existing Outlook client app (for Windows and Mac) to a fully-web-based version.
Sometimes in 2022, the PC and Mac versions of Outlook client will cease to exist — only web access will be available on desktops.
What is Project Monarch:
Project Monarch is the end-goal for Microsoft’s “One Outlook” vision, which aims to build a single Outlook client that works across PC, Mac, and the Web. Right now, Microsoft has a number of different Outlook clients for desktop, including Outlook Web, Outlook (Win32) for Windows, Outlook for Mac, and Mail & Calendar on Windows 10.
Sources also tell that Outlook will continue to work from a single web-based codebase from now on. Of course, this won’t make some Outlook integrations that were previously possible with native clients feasible to ship.
