Microsoft has made official its slipped-up announcement of mobile email and calendar client Acompli.
Reported to be for around $200 million, Acompli is currently available for iOS and Android (though considerably more usable on the former), and provides not only basic IMAP support for popular services like Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, but full Exchange support (via IAP) and an associated calendar tool. It also hooks into cloud storage services Dropbox, Box, Drive and iCloud for quick document saving and attachment. Its powerful filtering tools allow users to more quickly get to the emails they want without resorting to confusing labels and folders.
According to a blog post by Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s Corporate VP of Outlook and Office 365, “This acquisition is part of our company-wide effort to help people accomplish more with their mobile devices.” While Acompli was seen as a consumer-facing product similar to Mailbox or Google’s Inbox, it has been embraced by IT departments as it met the needs of a growing BYOD class of corporate business users.
