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Google delaying Exchange ActiveSync for Windows Phone cut off

Will Microsoft and Google ever get on? It’s like Apple and Microsoft. And Apple and Samsung. None of the companies hate each other, but when any of them get a whiff of serious competition, they go into overdrive with belittling wars of words, the threatening of legal action and/or removing support for competitor’s products.

That’s exactly what Google did to Microsoft and Windows Phone users, removing ActiveSync support for any new Windows Phone adopters with a Gmail account, to the surprise of Microsoft of course. But a month later Google backed down, sort of, extending the cut off deadline to July 31st.

Well that was yesterday and it’s now come to light that the support will again be extended to 31st December 2013. A Microsoft spokesperson has said:

We’ve reached an agreement with Google to extend support for new Windows Phone connections to the Google Sync service through December 31, 2013

Microsoft had been working on adding support for Google’s CalDAV and CardDAV protocols for future versions of Windows Phone to sync with Gmail accounts, which has subsequently arrived in the form of GDR2. Now, the only problem is that GDR2 isn’t hitting every Windows Phone 8 handset just yet, apart from some (read unlocked) HTC 8X handsets and a few of the latest Lumia handsets. 

And let's not forget the millions of Windows Phone 7 users which will also suffer the same fate come January 1st 2014. Microsoft has yet to mention any upcoming update for WP7 that would address this issue. 

So, is this Google warming to Microsoft? Did Windows Phone users, no matter how small in number, rattle Google’s cage enough to make them realise they were being a little tough? Or could it just be that Microsoft and Google sat down and worked out a compromise? Our bet is on the latter.

Source: The Verge
Via: Cool Smart Phone | Image via PandaApp

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