IBM's Lotus software coming to Apple's iPhone, iPod touch, Macs

[AppleInsider]

Microsoft rivals Apple Inc. and IBM Corp. will soon announce a partnership that will deliver a handful of IBM's Lotus software packages for Apple's handheld and Mac products, the Associated Press is reporting.

Specifically, IBM at its Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Fla., next week will formally announce that it plans to deploy its Lotus Notes e-mail package for Apple's iPhone and iPod touch mobile devices.

The software, which requires use of IBM's Domino e-mail server program, will be free for users who already have a Lotus Web-access license and start at $39 per year for new users, the AP claims.

In addition, IBM also plans to release Lotus Notes and the free Lotus Symphony "productivity" package - which includes documents, spreadsheets and other Microsoft Office-like software - for Apple's Mac computer line.

The move is reported to be part of a broader push on the part of IBM to find more avenues for its software and take advantage of Apple's natural affinity for Microsoft alternatives.

The AP speculates that if IBM, which counts 135 million Lotus users worldwide, can get companies to let their employees check Lotus e-mail on iPhones, the partnership could make Apple's gadget more competitive with Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry and other business-targeted smart phones.

Though IBM and Apple have largely remained competitors in the PC market outside of Apple's previous use of IBM's PowerPC chips in its Mac lines, the two sides are now said to appreciate that they "have a lot in common."

"We're going to cross-pollinate," said IBM spokesman Mike Azzi.

IBM's Lotus Notes e-mail package for the iPhone and iPod touch will reportedly make use of Apple's upcoming iPhone software developers kit (SDK), which has presumably been seeded to IBM ahead of its formal release sometime next month.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

[suhail]

Like many, IBM has a history of making half-assed Mac software. Lotus? I can't remember anyone using Lotus in years. IBM had always been a bureaucracy and is now surviving on previous Patents. I'll be surprised if anything good, or bad, comes out of this.

[backtomac]

Originally Posted by suhail

Like many, IBM has a history of making half-assed Mac software. Lotus? I can't remember anyone using Lotus in years. IBM had always been a bureaucracy and is now surviving on previous Patents. I'll be surprised if anything good, or bad, comes out of this.

That's kinda what I thought but the 135 million Lotus users caught my attention.

Who knows? With the new MBA and this, it seems Apple is trying to get corporate business.

[SpamSandwich]

About bloody time. Apple needs to press whatever advantages they have right now to broaden acceptance of their hardware and iPhone into larger corporations. It's asinine they haven't been doing this.

[SeanJ]

IBM's Lotus products have been gaining market-share and I believe where the most profitable part of IBMs business during a recent quarter.

Microsoft has long trumpted the "Notes is dead" spin, but no-only does it have a healthy user-base running on Windows, Mac and Linux desktops, but is also getting alot wins from people running Domino (the Server software) on Unix and Linux boxes.

For along time, too-long, Notes looked ugly and was rightly bashed for its user-interface which looked circa 1999. But IBM recently launched Notes 8, the biggest update to the product ever.

Notes 8;-

+ has a completley redesigned user-interface with lots of eye-candy (well for those who've never used a Mac),

+ is now based-upon the open-source Eclipse platform which allows a large degree of o.s agnostic software-development,

+ allows easy integration with other Eclipse plug-ins, for example, it includes Symphony which is IBM's free version of OpenOffice ported to the Eclipse environment

+ etc, etc.

Would be good to find-out how much functionality will be included in the iPhone client, as they say "Exchange is a mail-server, Domino contains a mail-server".

PS: don't forget IBM sold its PC division so it no-longer competes with Apple in that area.

[buenosnippy]

Having worked with Lotus software for a long time, I'm skeptical of IBM's dedication to the platform. I agree with one of the other posters here; IBM is a bureaucracy and this bureaucratic culture that comes from the top ends up spilling over to the different divisions including the Software Group. Their latest foray into the Notes Client is Eclipse-based which adds an additional layer of code execution on the platform. Sure, Eclipse (an IBM brainchild) makes their code more portable but also makes it larger. In terms of software for the iPhone, I hope Apple keeps a tight reign on the SDK in the hands of IBM. It's likely they will make design decisions that are financially favorable to IBM that sometimes sacrifice the quality and elegance of the Macintosh platform.

[NarutoSasuke]

The company I worked for has merged with another company and they use Lotus Notes. Before the merger, we always used Outlook with Microsoft Exchange. Now, we will be using Lotus Notes and hopefully I'll be able to get my work email on my iPhone!!!! I've always wanted to be completely attached to work!!

[JupiterOne]

Our company has been using Lotus Notes since the days of cc:Mail.

Originally Posted by SeanJ

But IBM recently launched Notes 8, the biggest update to the product ever.

Damn! We're still on R5!

[RexTraverse]

Originally Posted by suhail

Like many, IBM has a history of making half-assed Mac software. Lotus? I can't remember anyone using Lotus in years. IBM had always been a bureaucracy and is now surviving on previous Patents. I'll be surprised if anything good, or bad, comes out of this.

My employer uses Lotus Notes and we're locked into a 10-year contract with IBM. All I really care about coming out of this agreement is the ability to sync my Lotus Notes calendar with my iPod touch. I'd be nice to check my schedule without waiting for my 5 year old ThinkPad to start up and log onto the company VPN.

And hey... if this encourages my employer to start a switch to Macs (highly doubtful, but still a possibility) I wouldn't complain.

[PhillyMJS]

...will be like mustard on a chocolate cake.

Unless, of course, IBM has managed to hire people who actually know how to write a real Mac application since they released Notes 6.5, the most recent version I've had the displeasure of using/supporting.

~Philly

[tumbler]

Lotus Notes (and the rest of that bundle) is about as "un-Apple" as possible. I dare say that it is even more "un-Apple" than Windows. Preferences in Lotus Notes are scattered across 4-5 menus, the program locks up or simply closes itself without warning, any error message requires me to close the program and RESTART MY MACHINE (no kidding)!Startup time on my 2GZ/dual core/2GB machine at work is about 5-7 minutes. God help us when this crap infiltrates the iPhone.

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by PhillyMJS

...will be like mustard on a chocolate cake.

Unless, of course, IBM has managed to hire people who actually know how to write a real Mac application since they released Notes 6.5, the most recent version I've had the displeasure of using/supporting.

~Philly

I have never had to use much IBM software, so I can't contribute inteligently to this thread, though I like to see Apple gathering a bigger posse arround its halo, to mix a metaphor.

I'm really just posting to welcome Philly! Over 2.5 years after registering comes the first post--welcome in from the shadows!
(Its the AntiMel)

[melgross]

Originally Posted by suhail

Like many, IBM has a history of making half-assed Mac software. Lotus? I can't remember anyone using Lotus in years. IBM had always been a bureaucracy and is now surviving on previous Patents. I'll be surprised if anything good, or bad, comes out of this.

135 million users, almost all government and business, is a pretty large number. I wouldn't discount it.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

(Its the AntiMel)

Ok, that's funny!

[Bageljoey]

Originally Posted by melgross

Ok, that's funny!

(Glad were still friends)

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Bageljoey

(Glad were still friends)

I'm harder to crack than that1

[Tracker]

It will greatly help the ipone with corp IT dept that support notes/domino.

Hopefully it will be a very short wait for exchange support then we will get cooking!

[suhail]

I have no support for my following claims, but I'll bet that the 135 Million Lotus users are comprised of airport-terminal-applications, McDonalds cash registers, and other closed proprietary systems. Furthermore, I bet that the 135 number was grossly exaggerated, maybe as much as saying it is how many copies and licenses were sold in the lifetime of Lotus rather than the active user-base.

I have no facts except for that it's been many years ago since I ran into anyone using Lotus.

[inewbie]

Originally Posted by suhail

I have no support for my following claims, but I'll bet that the 135 Million Lotus users are comprised of airport-terminal-applications, McDonalds cash registers, and other closed proprietary systems. Furthermore, I bet that the 135 number was grossly exaggerated, maybe as much as saying it is how many copies and licenses were sold in the lifetime of Lotus rather than the active user-base.

I have no facts except for that it's been many years ago since I ran into anyone using Lotus.

I don't understand why you would speculate on this when you admit you have no facts regarding the number of installed Notes users. Clearly you don't understand what Notes is, otherwise you would know that it's not a program that is going to run a McDonalds Cash Register.

And proprietary? Jeez... what do you want? Support for POP, SMTP, IMAP, LDAP? XML, DXL, HTTP? MIME, SMOM, x.509? Web services? Oh yeah.... it supports all that and probably more that I don't even know of....

I don't pay attention to the press releases... so I don't really know what the 135 million number is, but most likely it's ACTIVE licenses..

I'm really not trying to pick.... but it just came off to me as a really negative comment when you admit that you have no facts...

The fact they you personally hasn't run into any of these people is not statistically relevant...

Best Regards!

[inewbie]

Originally Posted by tumbler

Lotus Notes (and the rest of that bundle) is about as "un-Apple" as possible. I dare say that it is even more "un-Apple" than Windows. Preferences in Lotus Notes are scattered across 4-5 menus, the program locks up or simply closes itself without warning, any error message requires me to close the program and RESTART MY MACHINE (no kidding)!Startup time on my 2GZ/dual core/2GB machine at work is about 5-7 minutes. God help us when this crap infiltrates the iPhone.

Tumbler... if you're having that much trouble then you should call support... or find a forum for help. You didn't say what version you're on, but my notes 7.0.2 loads and is ready to run in under 30 seconds on my 4 year old laptop at work.... and even quicker on a vmware and parallels virtual machines on my macs at home... 2.33 Core 2 Duo's...

It almost never "locks up"... and I develop on Notes and can get into some weird stuff...

Quite frankly the biggest problem I've had with it is the fact that my MacBook Pro doesn't have a "Break" key for when I might want to do a CTRL-Break to stop a process... But I just learned about windows On Screen Keyboard so hopefully that problem is now solved.

[Kickaha]

Since the iPhone doesn't have Java, and Notes 8 is Eclipse-based, I'm 99.9% sure that this will not be an actual Notes client in the traditional sense, but will instead rely on Domino Web Services to be enabled on the server end.

Which will suck for me, because my company refuses to turn them on.

[btitusjr]

We have Lotus notes here at work. And god does it suck. Makes me feel like I'm working on a program developed for windows 3.1
On the up side it does work very well.

[ksec]

Lotus 8 was a BIG step forward, but only because lotus 6.5 was %^$*.
I think Lotus 8 was nice, but still a lot of work to do and improve on.

[melgross]

Originally Posted by inewbie

I don't understand why you would speculate on this when you admit you have no facts regarding the number of installed Notes users. Clearly you don't understand what Notes is, otherwise you would know that it's not a program that is going to run a McDonalds Cash Register.

And proprietary? Jeez... what do you want? Support for POP, SMTP, IMAP, LDAP? XML, DXL, HTTP? MIME, SMOM, x.509? Web services? Oh yeah.... it supports all that and probably more that I don't even know of....

I don't pay attention to the press releases... so I don't really know what the 135 million number is, but most likely it's ACTIVE licenses..

I'm really not trying to pick.... but it just came off to me as a really negative comment when you admit that you have no facts...

The fact they you personally hasn't run into any of these people is not statistically relevant...

Best Regards!

Just curious. How many posts will you have to make before you regard yourself as no longer being a "newbie", and have to change your screen name, and start over?

[melgross]

Originally Posted by Kickaha

Since the iPhone doesn't have Java, and Notes 8 is Eclipse-based, I'm 99.9% sure that this will not be an actual Notes client in the traditional sense, but will instead rely on Domino Web Services to be enabled on the server end.

Which will suck for me, because my company refuses to turn them on.

Jeez! That's no excuse! You know how to do it. Just slip in during the night...

[melgross]

Originally Posted by btitusjr

We have Lotus notes here at work. And god does it suck. Makes me feel like I'm working on a program developed for windows 3.1
On the up side it does work very well.

Does it suck, or does it work very well?

[Kickaha]

Originally Posted by melgross

Jeez! That's no excuse! You know how to do it. Just slip in during the night...

You know where I work, right?

Don't get me started on Lotus products.

[Sedicivalvole]

IBM have been making changes in the Mac side for a few years altering the program from 6.5, 6.5.5, 7 and now 8

It has steadily become more Mac like since the switch to 7 and more so in 8. 7 introduced the app as a complete package etc.

This is not as bad as it sounds. Notes is a strong product.

[inewbie]

Originally Posted by melgross

Just curious. How many posts will you have to make before you regard yourself as no longer being a "newbie", and have to change your screen name, and start over?

We'll I'm a fairly recent switcher.... so it'll probably take awhile...