Apple Store“While I’m delighted that my iPhone syncs with my Exchange Server, I’ve been struggling to figure out why Microsoft licensed ActiveSync to Apple (and Google). For a long time, I used a Windows Mobile device because of the integration with Exchange (I’ve never been a Blackberry fan),” Brad Feld reports for Technology Review. “Once the iPhone integrated with Exchange, that was it for me and I switched to the iPhone.”

As I asked folks about this, I heard two reasons:
• The government made them.
• Ego: Microsoft wanted to be able to say “Apple licensed something from us.”

Feld writes, “Neither of these is very satisfying to me… When Apple released Snow Leopard and we started talking about the upgrade for the Mac users in our office, one potential reason occurred to me. After some discussion, we realized we needed Exchange 2007 to be able to have Snow Leopard connect to Exchange natively. Hmmm – we have been running Exchange 2003 (very nicely, thank you very much) since – well – 2003.”

“As a result, the only thing that motivated us to upgrade to Exchange 2007 is Apple Snow Leopard integration of Exchange ActiveSync,” Feld writes. If this is the reason, it’s a smart strategic move on Microsoft’s part. As part of our Exchange 2007 upgrade, we are buying a two year ‘upgrade insurance’ package so we’ll get an upgrade to Exchange 2010 for free. Microsoft defers any discussion around switching to Google Apps for us for at least three more years. While Microsoft runs the risk of losing desktop clients in the enterprise, I think they were going to lose these clients anyway to a Mac + Internet based solution so now they at least get to keep the server piece firmly in place.”

Full article here.