Microsoft Adding Outlook to Windows RT Tablets

Microsoft announced today that Outlook 2013 will be available on Windows RT tablets via the upcoming Windows 8.1 update.

"One of the top requests from Windows RT customers has been Outlook," Tami Reller, Microsoft's CFO and CMO, said during a keynote presentation at Computex in Taiwan. "I'm very pleased to announce that with the Windows RT 8.1 update Microsoft Outlook will be in-box."

When it debuted in October, Microsoft's Surface RT tablet came bundled with a full version of Microsoft Office 2013 Preview (Home and Student Edition), which included Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, but not Outlook, forcing buyers to use Windows RT's built-in Mail client or Internet Explorer.

As PCMag noted at the time, "this will only be a problem for enterprise-type businesses," forcing them to wait for the more full-featured Surface Pro, which arrived in February.

In a separate blog post, Microsoft noted that a recent Morgan Stanley study found that 61 percent of people shopping for tablets considered access to Microsoft Office "to be the single most important software feature."

Also at Computex, meanwhile, Microsoft showed off the first public demo of Windows 8.1, the first major update to Windows 8. Microsoft also published a quick guide video, which shows off updates like photos on the start screen, as well as customizable tile size, start screen, colors, and backgrounds. A search update, meanwhile, will pull answers from across the PC.

:story: PC Magazine