I don’t know what they’re drinking over there in Microsoft Product Management, but I’d love to have a glass of that too!
People are generally afraid of change and prefer to stay the same as much as possible. It is psychologically easier to expand an existing product than to take on something new. If there is always a product that has “Outlook” in it, then there is no need to think about buying it, it is “just the Outlook we always use”.
People who (don’t make) such decisions are usually unable to make the distinction for themselves. They like a new icon more than they like a new backend protocol.
Moreover, the product seems to be able to achieve more thanks to all these releases. If you are looking to see if a feature is just because it was in an earlier version doesn’t mean it is also present in the latest app with the name. This in itself applies to all software, but in practice, it is unusual for features to disappear in new versions.
The most superficial buyer will not realize this and think that he has found an application that meets all the requirements, but he saw a mixture of specifications from different applications that “accidentally” have the same name.
Outlook may not be the best example because most people don’t buy it separately, but it is part of MS’s larger strategy of selling services and solutions, not specific applications.
It was probably born out of necessity, but MS-Office for MacOS was developed as a completely independent product that could “accidentally” also handle .doc files and borrow some interface elements from Office for Windows.
Of course there’s nothing wrong with rewriting applications from scratch, especially with software that’s been around for decades, but if there are multiple versions of an application in circulation at the same time, it’s difficult if they’re very different.
Adding the word “classic” is definitely something, but it’s a name that got dated very quickly. Within five years, we will be Classic 2, Real Classic, Extra Classic and Next Classic. 
[Reactie gewijzigd door CAPSLOCK2000 op 25 juni 2024 12:26]