Outlook 2013 Officially Confirmed For Surface RT

As far as first generation products go, Surface RT is downright excellent. Sure it has a few rough edges and hiccups every now and then, but on the whole it is a perfectly capable device.

And with the Windows Store growing by leaps and bounds, it is only a matter of time before the Windows RT platform as a whole comes into its own. More importantly however, Microsoft seems to be keen on bringing as many improvements as it can to its tablet oriented operating system.

While the desktop iteration of Windows (Windows 8.1) has remained the primary focus these past few weeks, Redmond has finally decided to provide more details on how the upcoming refresh of Windows RT is going to affect the Surface RT tablets.

First up the is the news that Outlook 2013 RT will indeed be coming to the platform, providing users with a powerful email client for their Windows RT tablet.

As Brian Hall, general manager of the Microsoft Surface said on the Surface blog today:

“I am thrilled for myself, for Edie’s colleague, and for everyone else who really likes Outlook to point out that all Surface RT users will get Outlook 2013 RT, alongside a lot of other cool stuff coming with Windows 8.1. Tami Reller announced this just recently at Computex.”

This means that along with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, Surface RT will also get Outlook 2013 RT, which is to be released for free via the Windows Store as part of Windows 8.1.

Hall also hinted that the upcoming refresh of the operating system will also bring improved VPN support. This is one of the most requested features for the platform:

“Surface RT with Windows 8.1 will have strong mobile device management capabilities. This will let the IT department manage some settings, give certificates, and protect data, even if it’s my personal system if I want to let them do that to get access to work resources.”

Better VPN connectivity was the most requested Surface RT feature, this side of Outlook RT, and these comments above show that Microsoft is quite likely paying attention to user feedback.