Windows Mobile users can keep Outlook 2002…
Office XP, though outside of Mainstream Support, fully works with Vista. Microsoft has bundled Outlook 2002, instead of the newer Outlook 2003 with Windows Mobile devices for years.
Microsoft has been bundling older versions of Outlook with Windows Mobile 5 to credit the Office team. Microsoft Office management internally did not want the latest version of Outlook, worth hundreds of dollars, to be given away for free with any Microsoft-powered PDA. As such, Microsoft continued to ship the older (yet fully functional for PDA synchronization) Outlook 2002.
This put Microsoft in a difficult position. Microsoft had been shipping old software with new PDAs, on the verge of the release of Vista. Had they chosen to not support Office XP, Microsoft would have been asking new Windows Mobile 5 owners to purchase Office 2007 in order to continue using their PDA or Smartphone with Windows Vista.
Mainstream Support has been Microsoft’s tool to charge for new software and hardware in Vista. For example, Windows Vista will not sync with any Pocket PC 2002 device. No reason was given to PhoneNews.com from Microsoft for that action other than that the operating system had exited mainstream support.
For full stability in Vista, Office XP/Outlook 2002 users should install Office XP Service Pack 3, available from the Windows Update Control Panel (once Microsoft Update is enabled from Windows Update > Update Settings).
