IBM expands Lotus Notes Mac support to iPhone (screenshots)

***AppleInsider*** · 08-07-2008, 06:07 PM

IBM has unveiled a sneak peek of its new Lotus iNotes, a web app client for its Lotus Domino messaging server to bring email, calendar, and contacts to iPhone. The move fulfills rumors of customized iPhone support for Lotus Notes and demonstrates IBM's evolving interest in Apple within the enterprise.

Planned for delivery later this year, Lotus iNotes is built upon IBM's existing Lotus Domino Web Access infrastructure. The company's web site invites users to "bring the enterprise to your Apple iPhone" and says the software will deliver a "rich Apple iPhone user experience."

IBM published a series of screenshots of the tentative iNotes user interface, with the disclaimer that details are subject to change without notice. Those changes may likely include closer adherence to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone, as described in Apple's Introduction to Safari Web Content Guide for iPhone.

The images below are AppleInsider's composited representations of what the Lotus iNotes client will look like in the Safari browser, including support for email attachments, calendar events, and contacts.

The potential of a new platform

The original Lotus, which IBM purchased in 1995, stumbled in the mid 80s in part due to its weak support for the new Macintosh. The company then held a lock on the DOS spreadsheet market with Lotus 1-2-3, but its equivalent product for Apple's new Mac, called Lotus Jazz, failed miserably in part due to its lack of following Apple's human interface guidelines. Jazz was also expensive, late, and buggy.

That misstep allowed Microsoft to enter the Mac spreadsheet market virtually unchallenged, and rise from being a DOS license distributor into a new role as a significant desktop software developer with Excel on the Macintosh. Microsoft later ported Excel to the DOS PC using its Windows environment, and quickly ate into Lotus' 1-2-3 sales.

Lotus finally ported its 1-2-3 flagship to the Mac in 1991, but by then it was too late. After IBM purchased the remains of Lotus four years later, the pair floundered for years in the desktop software market, with Lotus' SmartSuite continuously losing market share to Microsoft's Office, in large measure due to the fact that Microsoft could sell Office licenses directly to PC makers tied to its dominant Windows platform.

Recently, IBM has embarked on a new strategy that backs Sun's OpenOffice suite. IBM is marketing its distribution of the open source alternative to Microsoft Office under the name Lotus Symphony, and has announced plans to provide the suite for free to Mac users, as well as closely integrating the productivity suite to its Lotus Notes messaging server.

IBM betting on Apple

Support for the iPhone in Lotus Notes is only IBM's latest step in investing in Apple's platforms as a competitive alternative to Microsoft's Windows. An AP report from January cited IBM spokesman Mike Azzi as noting that his company has "a lot in common" with Apple. "We're going to cross-pollinate," he said.

Earlier this year in May, IBM released its Informix Data Server 11 for Mac OS X Server. And over the course of the last year, multiple groups within the company have launched pilot programs aimed at evaluating support for migrating to Apple's Mac computers within the company.

An initial study at IBM Research, which started in October of 2007, found that 86% of those participating wanted to keep their MacBook Pro laptops over returning back to IBM ThinkPads running Windows. “It has been easier learning the Mac than learning Vista,” one participant reported. IBM has since expanded its Mac pilot program.

Enterprise a nearly untapped potential for Apple

Despite enthusiastic interest in Macs from users and a strategic competitive interest in Windows alternatives from Apple among executives, IBM currently has a very small share (less than 1%) of its international workforce using Macs. Many other companies similarly have a small proportion of Macs in their installed base.

However, Apple's dynamic and sustained growth in other markets, including its education stronghold and the much easier to enter consumer market, are having an effect on adoption in the enterprise. Sales of Apple's Mac computers have sharply risen at a rate of between 30 and 40% year over year (Mac market share), in an overall PC market that is barely growing by 3-4%.

A survey of 750 global IT administrators and C-level executives by the Yankee Group found that nearly four out of five businesses -- or approximately 80% --have at least a few Macs and the Mac OS X operating system installed in their networks, and nearly one-quarter said their firm had a "significant" number of Macs installed in their network of more than 30 to 50 units.

IBM's iNotes is the latest example of how the iPhone is helping to stoke interest in Apple's hardware, software, and development tools in the enterprise. In its initial iPhone 2.0 announcement, Apple stated that over a third of Fortune 500 companies had sought access to the company's ongoing iPhone Enterprise Beta program.

[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

Xian Zhu Xuande · 08-07-2008, 06:21 PM

Quote:

An AP report from January cited IBM spokesman Mike Azzi as noting that his company has "a lot in common" with Apple. "We're going to cross-pollinate," he said.

Haha... what a quote.
Sounds like something I would have to pay for...

GregAlexander · 08-07-2008, 06:29 PM

And doesn't cross polinate mean that Apple is making something for IBM, too?

ps. I like the idea of Notes on iPhone, though I no longer use Notes. I hope they're working on a native app rather than web app though.

SpinDrift · 08-07-2008, 07:10 PM

Please can we just have a native Pages / Word and basic Numbers / Excel editor please can we please?! Don't need another mail or calendar app. Mail and iCal work great as they are.

abrooks · 08-07-2008, 07:14 PM

Barring the fact that this app looks like something suited for Windows XP and I have no doubt it'll actually be a piece of junk it certainly looks feature packed.

We need more of this but looking better and interfacing with Pages, Keynote and Numbers.

Ireland · 08-07-2008, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SpinDrift

Please can we just have a native Pages / Word and basic Numbers / Excel editor please can we please?! Don't need another mail or calendar app. Mail and iCal work great as they are.

iCal doesn't work great with a Mobile me account

As for pages, keynote and numbers editors? I wouldn't hold me breath. I doubt Apple wants to give the iPhone those types of capabilities. Editing a document on a phone just doesn't seen like Steve's style to me. Wait for Mac touch for that jazz.

eAi · 08-07-2008, 07:31 PM

Looks better than the Windows Notes client. Not that that's hard.

Can't see what IBM has in common with Apple, not now anyway. Apple makes computers and easy to use software, IBM used to make computers and still makes badly designed software.

Ireland · 08-07-2008, 07:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eAi

Looks better than the Windows Notes client. Not that that's hard.

Can't see what IBM has in common with Apple, not now anyway. Apple makes computers and easy to use software, IBM used to make computers and still makes badly designed software.

Well if they want to develop software for the iPhone they have something in common, they both like the iPhone. It's good enough for me.

trapper · 08-07-2008, 08:59 PM

Gee, thanks IBM, great that we may be able to conveniently use iNotes via the iPhone. For email, this may even be ok (in conjunction with imap/smtp.)
For contacts and calendar (not to mention: tasks) data synchronization is definitely a must for any serious enterprise usage, though. Anyone having successfully set up a solution for this?

the cool gut · 08-07-2008, 09:01 PM

Oh god ... notes.

Booga · 08-07-2008, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ireland

iCal doesn't work great with a Mobile me account

As for pages, keynote and numbers editors? I wouldn't hold me breath. I doubt Apple wants to give the iPhone those types of capabilities. Editing a document on a phone just doesn't seen like Steve's style to me. Wait for Mac touch for that jazz.

Maybe not editors... but I think a Keynote player that could display over the video out on the docking port would be pretty hot.

Ireland · 08-07-2008, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Booga

Maybe not editors... but I think a Keynote player that could display over the video out on the docking port would be pretty hot.

Yeah, for those who need it it would be hot to them.

razorpit · 08-07-2008, 10:35 PM

I didn't know there was still a Lotus Notes out there. I had to use it in the late 90's and it was terrible. Besides IBM who uses it?

DaveGee · 08-07-2008, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by razorpit

I didn't know there was still a Lotus Notes out there. I had to use it in the late 90's and it was terrible. Besides IBM who uses it?

Yea, I though Gates ordered the last of em to be round up and shot years ago...

**melgross** · 08-07-2008, 10:50 PM

I see some silly negativity here.

What must be understood is that whether one likes a certain program or not is of no importance. There are those who do use these programs.

IBM is very much a force to be contended with in industry. Now that they've divested themselves of their PC unit, they are much freer to invest in Apple's products.

IBM is known for being agnostic towards products, as long as they meet customers needs. If IBM feels as though the Mac and iPhone are a good bet, then we should be happy about that fact, instead of complaining about it.

If IBM can manage to integrate more Macs into their own environment, then their customers will feel as though that's a safer thing to do.

Remember that IBM sells services. Those services are heavily enterprise oriented. Some of those services involve selling computers as part of the solution. The more IBM (and other's) business software is available on Macs and iPhones, the more IBM can sell them to customers, and they will.

If other companies see IBM working on Apple products for themselves, the more likely they will think it's acceptable.

The complaining about IBM's software therefore is pointless, as the more business software that is available for Apple's products, the more they will be selected to replace PCs.

And that's a good thing.

GregAlexander · 08-08-2008, 02:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melgross

What must be understood is that whether one likes a certain program or not is of no importance. There are those who do use these programs.

Yep, well said.

Quote:

Remember that IBM sells services. Those services are heavily enterprise oriented. Some of those services involve selling computers as part of the solution. The more IBM (and other's) business software is available on Macs and iPhones, the more IBM can sell them to customers, and they will.

Off topic, but imagine if IBM said that they would offer business/enterprise support for Macs & OSX.

trapper · 08-08-2008, 04:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melgross

The more IBM (and other's) business software is available on Macs and iPhones

Again: We're talking about a web application here, not about an actual iPhone app!

SeanJ · 08-08-2008, 06:38 AM

@ GregAlexander - yup IBM are looking to do a native application for the iPhone, equivalent to the Notes Traveller they produced for Windows mobile. I think one of the issues up to recently had been how to get notifications pushed thru' to a background application but Apple seem to have a solution ready for developers...

@eAi, abrooks, razorpit, DaveGee
Suprised to see Microsoft stooges lurking on an Apple forum...

Guess you're still thinking of the Notes from 1999... perhaps you should have a look at Notes 8, the latest version, which is now Eclipse based and has been winning awards for its look and UI...

http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotu...ewinnotes.html

IBM's recent press release shows that Notes is not just holding its own against Exchange/Sharepoint/lots-of-othe-bits-cobbled-together but increasing its customer base;

http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...BM-884845.html

The other Lotus products, Sametime, Quickr, Connections, Foundations, usually trounce Redmond's alternatives in independent evaluations, which is why for example Sametime is the largest corporate IM software by market-share.

All IBM's desktop products are moving to Eclipse, which will make them rapidly available for Win32, Win64, Mac OS X, and Linux desktops....
http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pr...ease/24825.wss

PeterRRRRRR · 08-08-2008, 07:28 AM

Quote:
"The original Lotus, which IBM purchased in 1995, stumbled in the mid 80s in part due to its weak support for the new Macintosh. The company then held a lock on the DOS spreadsheet market with Lotus 1-2-3, but its equivalent product for Apple's new Mac, called Lotus Jazz, failed miserably in part due to its lack of following Apple's human interface guidelines. Jazz was also expensive, late, and buggy."

You can't seriously believe that?? The influence of the Mac in the marketplace in the mid 80s (maybe before some other posters were even born?) was less than negligible. Lotus was an incredible cash machine in its day, but IBM bought them after their peak years. And then Microsoft set their sights on the Office market, used every advantage they had, and the rest is history. Even if Jazz had been a great product (which it wasn't), it would have played no role in IBM/Lotus's eventually being relegated to the dustbin.

SeanJ · 08-08-2008, 09:50 AM

" it would have played no role in IBM/Lotus's eventually being relegated to the dustbin"

still no idea where this Redmond-peddled perception persists, its akin to saying to Apple Mac's have a declining market-share (ie the opposite is the truth)....

from the press-release I posted to earlier...

"With 15 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, IBM's flagship Lotus Notes and Domino ... Lotus Notes and Domino adoption has grown to more than 140 million licenses... more than half of the largest 100 corporations in the world, 80 percent of the top 10 global companies in banking, telecommunications, aerospace and defense, consumer products, electronics, insurance, and pharmaceuticals."

some 'dustbin'!!!

iFerd · 08-08-2008, 09:52 AM

I guess this has been said, but perhaps not quite so plainly.

For some of us, Lotus Notes is what we must use for email and calendaring because that's what our organizations have adopted. It makes no difference whether Mail and iCal are great or not - they aren't options for our business needs. I for one would love to be able to ditch the BlackBerry I've been issued and carry only my iPhone. But I can't do that so long as there is no way for me to interact in real time with Lotus Notes for email and calendaring.

We're using Notes 7.0.2 in my organization. It would be nice to find that the comments about version 8 are true. It's coming to us someday, or so the story goes. But even so, that alone won't help with the iPhone.

DestructoTex · 08-08-2008, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by iFerd

I guess this has been said, but perhaps not quite so plainly.

For some of us, Lotus Notes is what we must use for email and calendaring because that's what our organizations have adopted. It makes no difference whether Mail and iCal are great or not - they aren't options for our business needs. I for one would love to be able to ditch the BlackBerry I've been issued and carry only my iPhone. But I can't do that so long as there is no way for me to interact in real time with Lotus Notes for email and calendaring.

We're using Notes 7.0.2 in my organization. It would be nice to find that the comments about version 8 are true. It's coming to us someday, or so the story goes. But even so, that alone won't help with the iPhone.

I'm in the same boat. Getting Notes to work on my iPhone has been a pain. iNotes doesn't work properly, so the solution my IT department came up with was to allow me POP3 access so I could at least get my mail on my iPhone. I can't respond to meeting invites, schedule meeting, see my calendar or pull any names or addresses off the domino server (which makes sending mail to a large group more trouble than it's worth on the phone), but at least I can get my mail while I'm out of the office.

I, for one, can't wait for Notes on the iPhone as a native app. There are several others in our organization that feel that way as well. I suspect that when it finally happens, a lot of our Blackberries will be in the ... um... dustbin.

DestructoTex · 08-08-2008, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DestructoTex

I'm in the same boat. Getting Notes to work on my iPhone has been a pain. iNotes doesn't work properly, so the solution my IT department came up with was to allow me POP3 access so I could at least get my mail on my iPhone. I can't respond to meeting invites, schedule meeting, see my calendar or pull any names or addresses off the domino server (which makes sending mail to a large group more trouble than it's worth on the phone), but at least I can get my mail while I'm out of the office.

I, for one, can't wait for Notes on the iPhone as a native app. There are several others in our organization that feel that way as well. I suspect that when it finally happens, a lot of our Blackberries will be in the ... um... dustbin.

Let me clarify here (after re-reading my post it makes it sound like I *choke* like Lotus Notes)... I hate LotusNotes with a burning passion. It has some decent functionality, but it's slow, non-intuitive in a lot of its UI and WAY bloated with "features." But it's what our company uses, so I swallow the bitter pill and use it.

ajmas · 08-08-2008, 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DestructoTex

Let me clarify here (after re-reading my post it makes it sound like I *choke* like Lotus Notes)... I hate LotusNotes with a burning passion. It has some decent functionality, but it's slow, non-intuitive in a lot of its UI and WAY bloated with "features." But it's what our company uses, so I swallow the bitter pill and use it.

Given the iPhone version is totally new implementation, maybe this will give them a chance to work on a better UI and user experience. What they learn could even make its way back to the desktop, but only time will tell.

Haggar · 08-08-2008, 11:46 AM

How about syncing notes and tasks on the iPhone?

SeanJ · 08-08-2008, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ajmas

Given the iPhone version is totally new implementation, maybe this will give them a chance to work on a better UI and user experience. What they learn could even make its way back to the desktop, but only time will tell.

No need to... Notes 8 and Notes 8.5 (currently on public beta) already have a great and highly intuitive UI... its just that "ajams" and alot of people like him are stuck in the past!

DestructoTex · 08-08-2008, 03:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanJ

No need to... Notes 8 and Notes 8.5 (currently on public beta) already have a great and highly intuitive UI... its just that "ajams" and alot of people like him are stuck in the past!

Correction: our IT departments are stuck in the past. We're on iPhones, remember?

DaveGee · 08-08-2008, 05:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanJ

@eAi, abrooks, razorpit, DaveGee
Suprised to see Microsoft stooges lurking on an Apple forum...

I have a feeling my post went TOTALLY over your head... My intention was to paint Gates and company as DICTATORS who simply round up and shoot anyone who doesn't follow in lock step with their own vision of a perfect world...

Microsoft stooge... HA thats a good one...

Dave

**melgross** · 08-08-2008, 07:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trapper

Again: We're talking about a web application here, not about an actual iPhone app!

We're talking about a lot more than that.

**melgross** · 08-08-2008, 07:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterRRRRRR

Quote:
"The original Lotus, which IBM purchased in 1995, stumbled in the mid 80s in part due to its weak support for the new Macintosh. The company then held a lock on the DOS spreadsheet market with Lotus 1-2-3, but its equivalent product for Apple's new Mac, called Lotus Jazz, failed miserably in part due to its lack of following Apple's human interface guidelines. Jazz was also expensive, late, and buggy."

You can't seriously believe that?? The influence of the Mac in the marketplace in the mid 80s (maybe before some other posters were even born?) was less than negligible. Lotus was an incredible cash machine in its day, but IBM bought them after their peak years. And then Microsoft set their sights on the Office market, used every advantage they had, and the rest is history. Even if Jazz had been a great product (which it wasn't), it would have played no role in IBM/Lotus's eventually being relegated to the dustbin.

What they're saying is true. Jazz, for example was terrible. Really terrible.

They aren't saying that the rejection of it by Mac users destroyed Lotus, just Lotus's products for the Mac.

MS's illegal methods of holding back important Windows API's from competing developers killed not only Lotus, but also Wordperfect, and DBase.

**melgross** · 08-08-2008, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaveGee

I have a feeling my post went TOTALLY over your head... My intention was to paint Gates and company as DICTATORS who simply round up and shoot anyone who doesn't follow in lock step with their own vision of a perfect world...

Microsoft stooge... HA thats a good one...

Dave

Well, you're a KNOWN MS stooge, aren't you?

DavidEnderleDevorakGee

trapper · 08-09-2008, 05:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by melgross

We're talking about a lot more than that.

You're right, we are. At least this thread is.

IBM is NOT, though: What they annouced is safari only (see [1], [2] : "iNotes ultralite is supported on the Apple iPhone or Apple iPod touch. And because it is entirely browser based, ...")

Additionally, I haven't seen any indication that the old "notes client for the iPhone" thoughts have been revived.

Or did I miss something?

[1] http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotu...ess/ultralite/
[2] http://infocenters.lotus.com/help7/i...ODE_STEPS.html

justflybob · 08-09-2008, 05:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by the cool gut

Oh god ... notes.

razorpit · 08-09-2008, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SeanJ

@eAi, abrooks, razorpit, DaveGee
Suprised to see Microsoft stooges lurking on an Apple forum...

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pr...ease/24825.wss

That's funny, one minute I'm accused of being an Apple fanboy, the next a Microsoft stooge. I didn't mean to offend you or the very, very small group of LotusNotes users. All I did was ask if anyone was still using this software. No one I know of uses it in business.

Tip: Chill out a little bit before you start tossing labels around...

**melgross** · 08-10-2008, 04:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by trapper

You're right, we are. At least this thread is.

IBM is NOT, though: What they annouced is safari only (see [1], [2] : "iNotes ultralite is supported on the Apple iPhone or Apple iPod touch. And because it is entirely browser based, ...")

Additionally, I haven't seen any indication that the old "notes client for the iPhone" thoughts have been revived.

Or did I miss something?

[1] http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotu...ess/ultralite/
[2] http://infocenters.lotus.com/help7/i...ODE_STEPS.html

IBM has announced much more than that. Even if you just read this story again, you will see that. They are bringing DB to the Mac as well, and no doubt, there will be some interface to the iPhone once that major project is finished.

IBM seems to have a lot of plans for Apple's products since they divested themselves of their own computer division.

This is just the latest in a number of announcements from IBM releating to the Mac and iPhone.

That's the point here. It's not just an interface to Notes on the iPhone that matters, but how that adds to, and fits into, their other moves that matters.

Looking into moving more Macs into their own organization, having "cross pollination" etc.

Don't forget that IBM and Apple have worked together in the past other than with the PPC chip families. This looks to be another moving together.

08-07-2008, 06:07 PM	#1
*AppleInsider* Kasper's Automated Slave Join Date: Nov 1997 Posts: 6,151	IBM expands Lotus Notes Mac support to iPhone (screenshots) IBM has unveiled a sneak peek of its new Lotus iNotes, a web app client for its Lotus Domino messaging server to bring email, calendar, and contacts to iPhone. The move fulfills rumors of customized iPhone support for Lotus Notes and demonstrates IBM's evolving interest in Apple within the enterprise. Planned for delivery later this year, Lotus iNotes is built upon IBM's existing Lotus Domino Web Access infrastructure. The company's web site invites users to "bring the enterprise to your Apple iPhone" and says the software will deliver a "rich Apple iPhone user experience." IBM published a series of screenshots of the tentative iNotes user interface, with the disclaimer that details are subject to change without notice. Those changes may likely include closer adherence to Apple's Human Interface Guidelines for the iPhone, as described in Apple's Introduction to Safari Web Content Guide for iPhone. The images below are AppleInsider's composited representations of what the Lotus iNotes client will look like in the Safari browser, including support for email attachments, calendar events, and contacts. The potential of a new platform The original Lotus, which IBM purchased in 1995, stumbled in the mid 80s in part due to its weak support for the new Macintosh. The company then held a lock on the DOS spreadsheet market with Lotus 1-2-3, but its equivalent product for Apple's new Mac, called Lotus Jazz, failed miserably in part due to its lack of following Apple's human interface guidelines. Jazz was also expensive, late, and buggy. That misstep allowed Microsoft to enter the Mac spreadsheet market virtually unchallenged, and rise from being a DOS license distributor into a new role as a significant desktop software developer with Excel on the Macintosh. Microsoft later ported Excel to the DOS PC using its Windows environment, and quickly ate into Lotus' 1-2-3 sales. Lotus finally ported its 1-2-3 flagship to the Mac in 1991, but by then it was too late. After IBM purchased the remains of Lotus four years later, the pair floundered for years in the desktop software market, with Lotus' SmartSuite continuously losing market share to Microsoft's Office, in large measure due to the fact that Microsoft could sell Office licenses directly to PC makers tied to its dominant Windows platform. Recently, IBM has embarked on a new strategy that backs Sun's OpenOffice suite. IBM is marketing its distribution of the open source alternative to Microsoft Office under the name Lotus Symphony, and has announced plans to provide the suite for free to Mac users, as well as closely integrating the productivity suite to its Lotus Notes messaging server. IBM betting on Apple Support for the iPhone in Lotus Notes is only IBM's latest step in investing in Apple's platforms as a competitive alternative to Microsoft's Windows. An AP report from January cited IBM spokesman Mike Azzi as noting that his company has "a lot in common" with Apple. "We're going to cross-pollinate," he said. Earlier this year in May, IBM released its Informix Data Server 11 for Mac OS X Server. And over the course of the last year, multiple groups within the company have launched pilot programs aimed at evaluating support for migrating to Apple's Mac computers within the company. An initial study at IBM Research, which started in October of 2007, found that 86% of those participating wanted to keep their MacBook Pro laptops over returning back to IBM ThinkPads running Windows. “It has been easier learning the Mac than learning Vista,” one participant reported. IBM has since expanded its Mac pilot program. Enterprise a nearly untapped potential for Apple Despite enthusiastic interest in Macs from users and a strategic competitive interest in Windows alternatives from Apple among executives, IBM currently has a very small share (less than 1%) of its international workforce using Macs. Many other companies similarly have a small proportion of Macs in their installed base. However, Apple's dynamic and sustained growth in other markets, including its education stronghold and the much easier to enter consumer market, are having an effect on adoption in the enterprise. Sales of Apple's Mac computers have sharply risen at a rate of between 30 and 40% year over year (Mac market share), in an overall PC market that is barely growing by 3-4%. A survey of 750 global IT administrators and C-level executives by the Yankee Group found that nearly four out of five businesses -- or approximately 80% --have at least a few Macs and the Mac OS X operating system installed in their networks, and nearly one-quarter said their firm had a "significant" number of Macs installed in their network of more than 30 to 50 units. IBM's iNotes is the latest example of how the iPhone is helping to stoke interest in Apple's hardware, software, and development tools in the enterprise. In its initial iPhone 2.0 announcement, Apple stated that over a third of Fortune 500 companies had sought access to the company's ongoing iPhone Enterprise Beta program. [ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]

08-07-2008, 08:59 PM	#9
trapper Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3	Give us sync, not just safari access to remote data! Gee, thanks IBM, great that we may be able to conveniently use iNotes via the iPhone. For email, this may even be ok (in conjunction with imap/smtp.) For contacts and calendar (not to mention: tasks) data synchronization is definitely a must for any serious enterprise usage, though. Anyone having successfully set up a solution for this?

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08-07-2008, 06:29 PM	#3
GregAlexander Registered User Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Australia Posts: 969	And doesn't cross polinate mean that Apple is making something for IBM, too? ps. I like the idea of Notes on iPhone, though I no longer use Notes. I hope they're working on a native app rather than web app though.

08-07-2008, 07:10 PM	#4
SpinDrift Registered User Join Date: Feb 2007 Posts: 653	Please can we just have a native Pages / Word and basic Numbers / Excel editor please can we please?! Don't need another mail or calendar app. Mail and iCal work great as they are.

08-07-2008, 07:14 PM	#5
abrooks Registered User Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: UK Posts: 63	Barring the fact that this app looks like something suited for Windows XP and I have no doubt it'll actually be a piece of junk it certainly looks feature packed. We need more of this but looking better and interfacing with Pages, Keynote and Numbers.

08-07-2008, 07:31 PM	#7
eAi Registered User Join Date: Mar 2005 Posts: 366	Looks better than the Windows Notes client. Not that that's hard. Can't see what IBM has in common with Apple, not now anyway. Apple makes computers and easy to use software, IBM used to make computers and still makes badly designed software.

08-07-2008, 09:01 PM	#10
the cool gut Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Posts: 1,573	Oh god ... notes.

08-07-2008, 10:35 PM	#13
razorpit Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 192	I didn't know there was still a Lotus Notes out there. I had to use it in the late 90's and it was terrible. Besides IBM who uses it?

08-07-2008, 10:50 PM	#15
melgross Global Moderator Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: NYC Posts: 19,612	I see some silly negativity here. What must be understood is that whether one likes a certain program or not is of no importance. There are those who do use these programs. IBM is very much a force to be contended with in industry. Now that they've divested themselves of their PC unit, they are much freer to invest in Apple's products. IBM is known for being agnostic towards products, as long as they meet customers needs. If IBM feels as though the Mac and iPhone are a good bet, then we should be happy about that fact, instead of complaining about it. If IBM can manage to integrate more Macs into their own environment, then their customers will feel as though that's a safer thing to do. Remember that IBM sells services. Those services are heavily enterprise oriented. Some of those services involve selling computers as part of the solution. The more IBM (and other's) business software is available on Macs and iPhones, the more IBM can sell them to customers, and they will. If other companies see IBM working on Apple products for themselves, the more likely they will think it's acceptable. The complaining about IBM's software therefore is pointless, as the more business software that is available for Apple's products, the more they will be selected to replace PCs. And that's a good thing.

08-08-2008, 06:38 AM	#18
SeanJ Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 5	@ GregAlexander - yup IBM are looking to do a native application for the iPhone, equivalent to the Notes Traveller they produced for Windows mobile. I think one of the issues up to recently had been how to get notifications pushed thru' to a background application but Apple seem to have a solution ready for developers... @eAi, abrooks, razorpit, DaveGee Suprised to see Microsoft stooges lurking on an Apple forum... Guess you're still thinking of the Notes from 1999... perhaps you should have a look at Notes 8, the latest version, which is now Eclipse based and has been winning awards for its look and UI... http://www-306.ibm.com/software/lotu...ewinnotes.html IBM's recent press release shows that Notes is not just holding its own against Exchange/Sharepoint/lots-of-othe-bits-cobbled-together but increasing its customer base; http://www.marketwire.com/press-rele...BM-884845.html The other Lotus products, Sametime, Quickr, Connections, Foundations, usually trounce Redmond's alternatives in independent evaluations, which is why for example Sametime is the largest corporate IM software by market-share. All IBM's desktop products are moving to Eclipse, which will make them rapidly available for Win32, Win64, Mac OS X, and Linux desktops.... http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pr...ease/24825.wss

08-08-2008, 07:28 AM	#19
PeterRRRRRR Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3	Quote: "The original Lotus, which IBM purchased in 1995, stumbled in the mid 80s in part due to its weak support for the new Macintosh. The company then held a lock on the DOS spreadsheet market with Lotus 1-2-3, but its equivalent product for Apple's new Mac, called Lotus Jazz, failed miserably in part due to its lack of following Apple's human interface guidelines. Jazz was also expensive, late, and buggy." You can't seriously believe that?? The influence of the Mac in the marketplace in the mid 80s (maybe before some other posters were even born?) was less than negligible. Lotus was an incredible cash machine in its day, but IBM bought them after their peak years. And then Microsoft set their sights on the Office market, used every advantage they had, and the rest is history. Even if Jazz had been a great product (which it wasn't), it would have played no role in IBM/Lotus's eventually being relegated to the dustbin.

08-08-2008, 09:50 AM	#20
SeanJ Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 5	" it would have played no role in IBM/Lotus's eventually being relegated to the dustbin" still no idea where this Redmond-peddled perception persists, its akin to saying to Apple Mac's have a declining market-share (ie the opposite is the truth).... from the press-release I posted to earlier... "With 15 consecutive quarters of revenue growth, IBM's flagship Lotus Notes and Domino ... Lotus Notes and Domino adoption has grown to more than 140 million licenses... more than half of the largest 100 corporations in the world, 80 percent of the top 10 global companies in banking, telecommunications, aerospace and defense, consumer products, electronics, insurance, and pharmaceuticals." some 'dustbin'!!!

08-08-2008, 09:52 AM	#21
iFerd Registered User Join Date: Jul 2007 Posts: 21	I guess this has been said, but perhaps not quite so plainly. For some of us, Lotus Notes is what we must use for email and calendaring because that's what our organizations have adopted. It makes no difference whether Mail and iCal are great or not - they aren't options for our business needs. I for one would love to be able to ditch the BlackBerry I've been issued and carry only my iPhone. But I can't do that so long as there is no way for me to interact in real time with Lotus Notes for email and calendaring. We're using Notes 7.0.2 in my organization. It would be nice to find that the comments about version 8 are true. It's coming to us someday, or so the story goes. But even so, that alone won't help with the iPhone.

08-08-2008, 11:46 AM	#25
Haggar Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 530	How about syncing notes and tasks on the iPhone?

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