3 ms·

I think there is a lot of cost to Google, they must pay for Exchange licences. I highly doubt that Google did this to cut off Windows Phone users, traditionally

I think there is a lot of cost to Google, they must pay for Exchange licences. I highly doubt that Google did this to cut off Windows Phone users, traditionally Google makes their services available to as many platforms as possible.

saurik 14y ago
Yeah, another interpretation of this (and to be clear: I'm not saying that this is the case; just that it also fits the data we have) is that Microsoft has made the terms of an upcoming license renewal worse now that they have a more reasonable competitor to Gmail, thinking that they can use this to win back some of what are arguably their own customers.
- 3825 14y ago
  >arguably their own customers I use an Android phone but I wouldn't label myself as just a Google customer
  - saurik 14y ago
    I did say "arguably" (and I can't stress that enough: if you were Microsoft, wouldn't you feel like these are your customers? it doesn't really matter what the customers think); that said, if your purchase was affected by the fact that the device came with the Market and other Google-branded apps that Google only offers to manufacturers as part of a licensing program, then you are at least indirectly their customer. Also, it should be noted that many of the people who need Exchange sync support are also doing so because they have an iPhone (where Google at least used to recommend you use the Exchange protocol to access Gmail instead of Apple's Gmail profile, as it allowed more content to synchronize; maybe Apple fixed this) or want the extended synchronization to work in clients like Outlook. It just feels somewhat weird that Google /chose/ to do this, given the importance they ascribe to getting the most out of tools like Outlook that some Gmail users really want to access all of their content with: it doesn't really screw Microsoft very much as most normal people aren't tied to their e-mail address (like us techy people are)... it mostly helps Microsoft's Outlook.com service.
    - 3825 14y ago
      I know exactly one person who owns a Windows Phone 8 device (the 920). I can see where he is coming from because he is our SharePoint guy.
zmmmmm 14y ago
It would be really interesting to know if there's a per-user cost. If so, then it would seem to be extremely generous of Google to be paying Microsoft for the privilege of having Microsoft's users get free email access on their phone. If not, then it seems kind of mean. But then, when the other side is giving away free phones to people to publicly trash your operating system it must be hard not to be a little bit mean in return.

saurik 14y ago

Yeah, another interpretation of this (and to be clear: I'm not saying that this is the case; just that it also fits the data we have) is that Microsoft has made the terms of an upcoming license renewal worse now that they have a more reasonable competitor to Gmail, thinking that they can use this to win back some of what are arguably their own customers.

3825 14y ago
>arguably their own customers I use an Android phone but I wouldn't label myself as just a Google customer
- saurik 14y ago
  I did say "arguably" (and I can't stress that enough: if you were Microsoft, wouldn't you feel like these are your customers? it doesn't really matter what the customers think); that said, if your purchase was affected by the fact that the device came with the Market and other Google-branded apps that Google only offers to manufacturers as part of a licensing program, then you are at least indirectly their customer. Also, it should be noted that many of the people who need Exchange sync support are also doing so because they have an iPhone (where Google at least used to recommend you use the Exchange protocol to access Gmail instead of Apple's Gmail profile, as it allowed more content to synchronize; maybe Apple fixed this) or want the extended synchronization to work in clients like Outlook. It just feels somewhat weird that Google /chose/ to do this, given the importance they ascribe to getting the most out of tools like Outlook that some Gmail users really want to access all of their content with: it doesn't really screw Microsoft very much as most normal people aren't tied to their e-mail address (like us techy people are)... it mostly helps Microsoft's Outlook.com service.
  - 3825 14y ago
    I know exactly one person who owns a Windows Phone 8 device (the 920). I can see where he is coming from because he is our SharePoint guy.

zmmmmm 14y ago

It would be really interesting to know if there's a per-user cost. If so, then it would seem to be extremely generous of Google to be paying Microsoft for the privilege of having Microsoft's users get free email access on their phone. If not, then it seems kind of mean. But then, when the other side is giving away free phones to people to publicly trash your operating system it must be hard not to be a little bit mean in return.