Someone asked me today whether the Mail app in Windows 8.1 is going to get a major upgrade. It was pretty clear that my associate didn’t enjoy using that app with his Surface RT.
That conversation inspired me to reread this Engadget review:
There’s no other way than to come out and say it: we are extremely disappointed in the … email app. So much so, in fact, that … mail support may be the largest factor in killing its status as a productivity device. Don’t get us wrong, the application is just fine for anyone who wants to do light email, but it lacks the power and convenience that frequent-emailers require.
That was just one of several “severe issues about the device.” So, which gadget were they talking about? Maybe not the one you think.
Oh well, I’m sure the big update a year after the original release will fix things.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
Ha, I knew exactly what you were talking about before I even clicked the link. I remember Chris Zigler (then the head of Eng Mobile) saying that Gmail on the first iPhone was a crime against humanity. I love my iPhone (bought on day one and have used every one of them since), but I’m still not a fan of the email app.
I agree 100% with this. It’s not kept me from either RT or 8, but Microsoft should have made this a top priority. E-Mail has been and remains the #1 use of the Internet, so it should be their #1 app. And it should be killer. Top knotch. The end-all-be-all to e-mail. They messed up royally on this.
I do not have a Windows RT device, so I’ve been able to kick tires on the “modern” Mail and move on. It is somewhat less bad than it started out, but still needs lots of work.
I could say the same about the Android email client Exchange support is simply horrible. point of making it pretty much broken for business purposes.
It’s a point worth making, particularly as MS often gets singled out for special treatment. That said, it’s embarrassing that MS, a leader in email, didn’t provide a better client out of the gate.
I’ve even deleted the Mail, Calendar and Contacts App as It’s Extremelly Useless, I’ve had My Exchange, Gmail and Yahoo mail on that app and it crashed a lot, didn’t work well, Contacts app was not as 1/4 as good as on Windows Phone 7.5 and the Calendar App, well, what Can I say?
The whole interface ( windows 8 ) really is a little unpolished. I don’t know what Microsoft was thinking, its like they were really rushing to get it out, like it didn’t really matter, because their going to be criticized to the wall anyway. I understand the feeling, but this is a major worldwide product. I still like windows 8 but the various problems like creating folders or finding functions etc etc, can be annoying. For sure you can always use ctrl-x, or the desktop. I still really like windows 8 anyway, but it’s just a little disappointing to see this after the progress that was made with windows 7. It must be really rough trying to spit out whole new interfaces at the speed the industry is going though…I really appreciate being able to mirror my local drives, but one HUGE issue is the fact that Gigabit Intel network adapters are not supported on windows 8 – here is a link to that whole mess – link