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It's Official: Microsoft Buys Acompli

It's Official: Microsoft Buys Acompli

Now port it to Windows

Microsoft confirmed the rumors today and announced that it has purchased Acompli and its excellent Outlook-like mobile clients for Android and iOS. And as you might expect, Microsoft will "build on the app's success and bring it together with work currently in progress by the Outlook team."

Here comes the new Outlook Mobile, I hope.

I just wrote about Acompli and why Microsoft would want to purchase this company. There's no need to rehash that article, but I'll just summarize it by noting that the Acompli mobile apps achieve something Microsoft was unable to do on its own: Create a single consistent user experience for email, calendar, contacts and cloud storage that bridges multiple accounts and mobile platforms.

Here's how Microsoft describes the purchase.

"Microsoft has acquired Acompli, provider of innovative mobile email apps for iOS and Android," Microsoft corporate vice president Rajesh Jha writes in the Official Microsoft Blog. "This acquisition is part of our company-wide effort to help people accomplish more with their mobile devices."

Key points:

Over half of email messages are first read on a mobile device "so it's essential to give people fantastic email experiences wherever they go."

The Acompli app is innovative. It provides "ways to focus on what's important in your inbox, to schedule meetings, and work with attachments and files."

It supports multiple accounts. Like Outlook on the PC, Accompli "connects to all email services and provides a single place to manage email with a focus on getting things done." The acquisition will "expedite [Microsoft's] work to deliver the full power of Office to mobile devices."

The Acompli app is becoming part of Outlook. "We will build on the [Acompli] app's success and bring it together with work currently in progress by the Outlook team. Our goal is to deliver fantastic cross-platform apps that support the variety of email services people use today and help them accomplish more."

The Acompli team is becoming part of the Outlook team. "This acquisition brings us a set of talented people who are passionate about reinventing email and communications on mobile screens."

In a related post to the far more fanciful Acompli blog, Acompli CEO Javier Soltero who provides a nice summary of his own for their mobile app: Loved by Users, and Trusted by IT.

"We remain committed to the original Acompli vision of making the best mobile email application on any platform and across all services," he writes. "Your app and accounts will continue to work and the team will continue on our fast pace of improving and adding new functionality every couple of weeks."

Mr. Soltero says that Microsoft will share more about their product plans "over the next few months."

TAGS: Office 365
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