iPhone putting on a Lotus Notes suit?

by Thomas Ricker, posted Jan 17th 2008 at 7:33AM

If you're looking to gain respect for your gear as a serious business-class tool, there's no better way than to infiltrate those Big Four accounting firms still using Lotus Notes. According to a piece carried by the Associated Press, Lotus Notes eMail is coming to Apple's iPhone and iPod touch. We kid you not. The announcement is expected as early as Sunday the 20th, the day IBM's annual Lotusphere conference kicks off in Orlando. The software is free for those with existing licenses which means IT is going to have a hell of a time keeping it out of users' hands. If true, the application would presumably be the first official, third-party application developed with Apple's new iPhone SDK. IBM is also expected to announce their free Lotus Symphony flavor of OpenOffice for the Mac at the same time. An IBM spokesman seemingly confirmed the announcements by saying that Apple and IBM have, "a lot in common. We're going to cross-pollinate." Let's just hope they manage to untangle that jumbled Notes UI for finger-friendly navigation during the mating ritual, eh?

[Via MacRumors]

Filed under: Handsets, Apple

Tags: apple, breaking news, BreakingNews, ibm, iphone, lotus notes, LotusNotes, rumor

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Dan @ Jan 17th 2008 8:25AM

While I always appreciate the snarky and cynical tone taken with these sorts of posts, let's give credit where credit is due, ok? Unfortunately, for a lot of us, our employers aren't as technology "hip" (haha) as us, their employees. There are a lot of companies still using the Lotus Suite of applications. It burns our eyes and hurts our brains. But we still have to use it. This would be a welcome turn of events for many, many, (really unfortunately), many of us...

Neutral

pglyman @ Jan 17th 2008 9:00AM

This should be illegal...no really

Neutral

MTM @ Jan 17th 2008 10:41AM

Wow, didn't know iPhone had that new screen technology which shows a different picture depending on the viewing angle - so that's the technology that brings it five years ahead of everything else ^^

(Hint: See reflection)

Neutral

Dave @ Jan 17th 2008 8:35PM

Too bad no one that works for a big 4 is going to ever use this since with AT&T if you get an iphone you lose the corporate discount on service you get...sorry but 25% of my monthly phone bill being paid for me using a WinMo or BB sounds a lot better than being "hip".

Neutral

Big Sam @ Jan 17th 2008 12:44PM

Wow, we dumped Lotus years ago (thankfully!)

Neutral

bubbatex @ Jan 17th 2008 1:49PM

Agree - and BTW, at least one of the big four is finally moving to Outlook.

Neutral

Sean @ Jan 18th 2008 12:56AM

Whatever one might think about Apple or IBM(Lotus) or even Microsoft, this is good news for interoperability and progress. It does amaze me though how vitriolic people can be about Lotus Notes while it continues to be the most versatile and flexible messaging platform around for the enterprise. Nevermind the development platform capabilities of Notes and Domino for colloborative applications, just from a purely client/server perspective, Exchange/Outlook is nothing more than derivative junk without a scrap of real innovation in it's entire code base. When someone has actually seen what can really be done with Notes/Domino, and especially after seeing what cannot be done with Outlook/Exchange, those disparaging comments tend to stop...

Highly Ranked

Tor Slettnes @ Jan 18th 2008 1:08AM

Must... resist... temptation....

Arrrggh!!

Thinking logically, there is NO REASON to get an iPhone. It is nearly the least capable phone on the planet (severely crippled bluetooth, un-unlockable - at least in a supported fashion, no J2ME/Java support, no 3G, no MMS, a crappy camera, etc. etc.). Plus, I already have a N95-3 (NAM) w/8GB transflash.

But I do own a couple of Macs. I am a "fanboi" when it comes to their computer products. Their new wireless keyboard is simply the best keyboard that exists (even better than Logitech diNovo/diNovo Edge). And the iPhone - well, people around me at work that do own it keep bragging about it...

And now this. Lotus Notes. The Holy Grail. (I found out a little while ago that Nokia IntelliSync for Mobiles do support Lotus Notes/Domino as well, and I was elated - until I found that it does not support their own Symbian phones - like my N95...)

Then again - I bet it wouldn't work for me anyway. The iPhone (again, based on what those people around me say) does not seem to be able to connect via our internal WLAN at work (using WAP Enterprise/802.1x authentication) - only via our public/external WLAN, where I would not be able to access our Domino servers. So, chances are this would do me little good in any case..

Whew! Looks like I escaped the reality distortion field, and put that irrational crave on the shelf - once again! :)

Man, close one.