“Apple has all of these plans for exchange e-mail of course and no way to harness it other than to tell companies that exchange is available?” Kleinberg writes. “Of course not. It’s got to be much more involved than that. And while Apple could partner with Microsoft and create a Mac version of Outlook, that’s not Apple’s style.”
Kleinberg writes, “Apple takes a step into a new territory every day … a little step on Photoshop with photo editing tools in iPhoto … a bigger step on Microsoft with iWork … Apple has this one covered. It has from day one. It just never used it to its full potential. Somehow, some way, I believe that this was the plan for Apple all along … a powerful, robust way to tie together corporate e-mail, calendars, etc., that’s all Apple and just a little touch of Microsoft.”
Kleinberg writes, “And you know what it will do? It will flatten the morale at RIM pretty quickly. Like a BlackBerry pancake, if you will.”
“.Mac is Apple’s next big thing, and it always has been… .Mac will become as important a piece to Apple as Outlook became to Microsoft,” Kleinberg writes.
“If you combine this amazing functionality with an iPhone, your iPhone is going to become your personal organizer on steroids in a hurry. Over-the-air calendar and e-mail updating via 3G and Wi-Fi,” Kleinberg writes. When Apple finally releases “the second coming of .Mac,” Apple should “drop the $99 price tag” and make .Mac free.
Full article here.