Not sure the complaint here. Do you use email in a corporate environment? If so, Outlook rocks with the ability to plug into more than just email.
It’s instant messaging aware, showing me the chat status of co-workers from the email I’m looking at.
It’s got calendar sharing (actually, it can share almost anything) and you’ve got a rich set of privacy controls allowing you to customize who exactly can see what.
It works seamlessly with Sharepoint, a document storage and collaboration solution from MS.
It provides you with the ability to use custom external text editors for email, like MS Word, if you prefer.
Hell, not only does it provide the ability to dial my phone for me, it even tells me if the person I want to call is already in a conversation first (again, according to their own configured privacy settings).
Every poor sap I’ve talked to who is stuck using Lotus Notes (Outlook’s primary competitor in business IT) is unabashedly jealous of anyone who has Outlook.
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I haven’t even walked all the way around the tip of the iceberg here. There’s so much more.
However, if you’ve got it only for home use and you don’t have all of the enterprise whizbang elements at play, then yes, I can see where it’s a bit underwhelming.