Microsoft kills Entourage, brings Outlook to Macs

Mac users who want to manage their email, contacts, and calendar with Microsoft software are moving closer to even footing with their PC counterparts. Microsoft said today that in the next version of Office for Mac, its Mac-only email application Entourage will be replaced with a new piece of software, Outlook for Mac.

Entourage has always been a bit unusual — where most of the Office for Mac line-up consists of PC standbys like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Entourage is a Mac-only product. And where Mac users could reasonably expect that their version of Word would match up approximately to the PC equivalent, Microsoft has been adamant that Entourage is not “Outlook for the Mac” (Outlook being its popular PC email application), so users should stop complaining when Entourage lacks this or that Outlook feature, or is just generally not up to snuff.

Now, with the new application and the new name, Microsoft will be expected to deliver email software for Macs that’s as good as Outlook, or close. (I’m can’t speak from personal experience, since I’m a Gmail user, but VentureBeat Editor and longtime Outlook user Matt Marshall tells me he’s not a fan of Entourage.) The company isn’t sharing too many details about Outlook for Mac yet, not even a release date, but it did outline a few features that will be included:

• Cocoa. Built from the ground up using Cocoa providing users with improved integration with the Mac OS.
• New database. A high-speed file-based database with support for backing up files with Time Machine and Spotlight searching.
• Information Rights Management. Helps prevent sensitive information from being distributed to or read by people who do not have permission to access the content.

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