Something odd just struck me. Two powerhouse tech companies, Apple and Google, have announced new products aimed at replacing part of the apparently ubiquitous Microsoft Exchange/Outlook pairing.

What is odd is that they’re each replacing a different end. Apple are removing the need for Entourage (Outlook’s sibling for the Mac) by including Exchange support in their core Mail, iCal and Address Book applications while Google are removing the need for Exchange by supporting Outlook as a front end to their cloud-hosted mail, calendaring and contacts service.

Whilst I use An Outlook/Exchange combo at work, that is almost certainly never going to change. Personally, I do use Google’s cloud service, hate Outlook with a vengeance and do not use Apple’s apps at all. So neither will affect me in the least.

But in my opinion, Apple’s move is the smarter. As far as my experience goes there’s not a whole lot wrong with Exchange. Outlook, on the other hand, is a horrible piece of bloated, dated and ill-conceived junk. Google, what were you thinking?