Microsoft’s announcement of Windows Phone 8 had some great news for hardware enthusiasts. Announced features include NFC, mobile payment capabilities, high resolution graphics, multi-core processors, and removable storage options like SD card. Also mentioned was tight(er) integration with the Windows 8 platform.
Two things stuck out to us – file system and device drives – that Windows Phone 8 will share with big brother Windows 8. Will this tighter integration between WP8 and Windows 8 mean something new for business professionals who rely on Microsoft Outlook to manage relationships, schedules, task lists, and business notes? Will they finally get an “lite” version of Outlook on their WP8? Will this finally lead to a cloud-free solution for standalone Outlook users (those who don’t use Microsoft Exchange) to get their Outlook contacts, calendar, tasks and notes on Windows Phone 8 devices?
CompanionLink continues to research these and other options. We won’t know for sure until we get our hands on the WP8 SDK. Ideally, standalone Outlook users really want a way to sync to WP8 directly over a USB cable; just like they used to do with the ActiveSync software on their PC from years past. You can sign up on our list to be kept current of our findings in our endeavor to provide USB sync for Outlook and Windows Phone.