Apple and Microsoft may be the definition of coopetition. The companies may compete, but they're surprising partners, too. Even as Apple "Get a Mac" ads throttle Windows Vista or iPhone 3G whacks at Windows Mobile, Microsoft's competitor has become a surprising partner for Exchange Server 2007. Exchange is suddenly very important to Apple.
In March, Apple announced that iPhone 2.0 software would support Microsoft's ActiveSync, offering full synchronization fidelity with Exchange Server. The update is coming soon, presumably July 11 with release of iPhone 3G.
Yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs started his World Wide Developer Conference keynote by talking about Exchange Server support. "We've built it in, out of the box in iPhone 2.0 software." There is support for push calendars, contacts and e-mail, auto-discovery, global address lookup and remote wipe (if device is lost or stolen).