Microsoft is preparing to launch an updated version of its Remote Desktop tool for OS X and a new version for iOS later this month, reports ZDNet. The company will also reportedly release a version of the app for Android and its new Windows RT platform, which comes as the company is pushing to make access and communication with its Windows operating system universal and throughout various platforms.
Further, with Windows Server 2012 R2 Microsoft is introducing the Microsoft Remote Desktop app, available for download in application stores later this month, to provide easy access to PCs and virtual desktops on a variety of devices and platforms, including Windows, Windows RT, iOS, OS X and Android.
Additionally, Microsoft MVP Michel Roth has stated (via Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows) that the company is very serious about the upcoming applications, which reportedly will be full-featured and not include stripped functionality like that of ported clients:
“Microsoft is very serious about enabling BYOD [Bring Your Own Device] by means of desktop virtualization,” Roth writes. “When you see the clients you’ll notice they are pretty sweet and not as basic or as ‘v1’ as you might expect. The iOS Remote Desktop app supports iOS 6 and 7 and the Android Remote Desktop app is poised to support Android versions as far back as Gingerbread. The OS X Remote Desktop app provides even more functionality that you would expect from a ‘desktop app’. Think about ‘seamless windows’ or ‘applications portal’.”
Notably, the Mac App Store already contains various cross-platform remote desktop clients, but none of them are official or licensed. Microsoft does however have a Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac that ships with Office 2011, but has received little recent support and is limited in nature compared to other full featured clients.
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