Bundling Outlook, Microsoft's personal information manager and e-mail client, with a Windows Mobile PDA or smartphone is par for the course for the vast majority of Windows Mobile-device vendors. Not any more if you’re Hewlett-Packard (HP): Starting with iPAQs manufactured in March, HP will stop including Outlook with the Getting Started CD that ships with its smartphones and handhelds.

The company made this development known in an advisory recently posted to its Web site. It doesn't say why it is taking this controversial, and not very user-friendly, move.

You see, Outlook is nearly as important when it comes to getting the most out of a Windows Mobile device as Microsoft's ActiveSync and Windows Mobile Device Center (for Windows Vista PCs) synchronization software. You need Outlook (or Microsoft Exchange Servers in an enterprise environment) to sync with a Microsoft-based device.

So what does this development mean? It means HP customers will have to purchase Outlook after getting a Windows Mobile device from HP if they don't already have it on their PC already.

Here's what HP suggests:

Customers can go to office.microsoft.com and follow the on-screen instructions to purchase the available version of Microsoft Outlook.

Customers can follow these two steps to check whether Microsoft Outlook is installed on their PCs:

1) Click Start > All Programs.

2) Verify if Microsoft Outlook exists in the list of programs on the PC.

Hopefully, for future iPAQ customers HP will change its mind or come up with some sort of alternative solution.