Filed under: Enterprise, iPhone
Lotus Notes is coming to the iPhone
Good news for IBM Lotus users, Big Blue will bring an iPhone-compatible version of its Lotus Domino Web Access suite to the App Store later this year. The software, dubbed "Lotus iNotes," will allow businesses that utilize Lotus Domino Server to provide their users access to contacts, e-mail and calendars.No firm release date has been set, though screenshots (which are not final and subject to change) and tentative information is available at IBM's Lotus Domino Web Access site.
Lotus iNotes is just one of the new mobile strategies IBM will be deploying in the coming months, as it looks to stave off competition from Microsoft.
And while Lotus might not be the sexiest collaboration software around, it is used by millions upon millions of people worldwide. IBM's support of the iPhone could really propel corporations to adopt, or at least consider supporting, the iPhone in IT environments.
[via RoughlyDrafted]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
dastranger said 3:09PM on 8-08-2008
Boy, if you think MS Office/Exchange is bad. Get ready for some more hurtin' with Lotus. Ugh. What a piece of junk.
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Ramone said 3:12PM on 8-08-2008
Cool!!! I have been waiting for this! Now if they could just release Visicalc I will be all set!
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BabyGotMac said 3:30PM on 8-08-2008
"And while Lotus might not be the sexiest collaboration software around, it is used by millions upon millions of people worldwide. IBM's support of the iPhone could really propel corporations to adopt, or at least consider supporting, the iPhone in IT environments."
Any IT department still using Notes is no way, no how EVER EVER EVER going to promote or allow iPhone access.
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Christina Warren said 3:37PM on 8-08-2008
Fair enough, though I do actually know a few guys who run Domino servers and have pretty prime BlackBerry setups. I could see them at least expanding their offering.
fernando said 3:45PM on 8-08-2008
Really??!?? We use notes and I am in the IT department and I'll use this any day over goodlink on winblows mobile. Three of us here are using it right now with IMAP over SSL.
Mike G said 3:56PM on 8-08-2008
I am the Lotus Domino Administrator for a multi-national company, and several of us in the IT department alone have the new iPhone 3G. This will make accessing my calendar and my contacts much easier and faster than buying a piece of garbage HTC phone (Tilt included) and installing any app on it to connect to my Domino server. Dont even get me started on Blackberry's.
destructo said 3:58PM on 8-08-2008
My IT department has no idea what to do with my iPhone or how to support it. When I told them about this, they were really, really excited
... that they didn't have to learn something new.
Casey said 3:33PM on 8-08-2008
Wow. That's almost as ugly as the actual software. I use lotus notes for Mac at work and I'm shocked that it's in use anywhere. It's slow, unintuitive, cluttered and lacks many features that I've taken for granted for years.
Can someone explain what the appeal to Lotus is? It's gotta be a back-end thing.
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Christina Warren said 3:35PM on 8-08-2008
Yeah, I really don't get it either. I've always found it to be slow, buggy and bloated -- but there *are* people who actually love it (hey, different strokes...). My guess is that migrating to a new platform is too much of an undertaking for some corporations. Like, the school system my mom works for has been on Lotus for like 14 years or something, I don't EVER see them switching, even though Exchange would be faster, run better on their machines and probably be easier for the staff to use. I just can't see trying to convert that many databases that are archived to a new system, especially a government system.
MRCUR said 3:45PM on 8-08-2008
Really, it's about how you can build custom apps within Notes. My company uses many, many custom apps within Notes.
While it's not in any way good looking or easy to use, it does work. Although I hope to never use it outside of my workplace, I can't say it's 100% bad, maybe 95% bad.
And it's not a back-end thing, that's just as unintuitive and slow as the end-user app.
Mike G said 3:56PM on 8-08-2008
Gee, I don't know. How about the fact that we have not had a single virus take down our email server, each user can have thier own 16GB mail file (if we let them) and a whole company can have 1 mail server, instead of multiple ones to manage? Hmmm? Gee, as a Domino server admin, i know I would rather worry about one than several mail servers. As far as being "GREEN", I dont have to buy 3 more servers because MSFT Exchange can only have 1 giant mail file, and once that mail file hits that limit, time to buy another server. That, and the new Lotus Domino/Notes 8 looks alot better (closer to Outlook) with all the benefits of Domino.
byrdman said 4:15PM on 10-06-2008
I could not agree more. Searching should be a simple task, but not with Notes.
The main thing they have going for them is security. There encryption is far superior to anything on the market for enterprise users. For government systems, this is a BIG deal.
Sharon said 3:35PM on 8-08-2008
A little disappointed that it looks like a web-app. Without collaboration with Apple, Lotus Notes support will never be as robust as MS Exchange support on the iPhone.
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Adam Robinson said 3:40PM on 8-08-2008
It looks like a web app because it IS! It's running in Safari. I truly can't see the value of wrapping a web application in a different icon. Apple added the ability to add Safari bookmarks to the home screen AGES ago; this isn't anything that requires the App Store.
Sharon said 3:44PM on 8-08-2008
Hence the disappointment ;).
Lotus Notes is slow and clunky as hell, but unfortunately the call isn't up to me. Having a way to easily view my work emails and calendar from my iPhone will be great, even if the application is just a web app.
madgunde said 3:44PM on 8-08-2008
A web app? That's so one year ago! C'mon IBM/Lotus, there's a freaking SDK now, use it! Quit wasting yours and everyone else's time working on an iPhone friendly web app when what people would really want is a native app. Once Apple updates the SDK to handle pushing of updates/badges, then they can probably add push email as well!
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Scott said 3:54PM on 8-08-2008
Notes is a hellish software mess. People use Notes for e-mail because they're forced to. It flaunts nearly every common graphical user interface standard in the Windows version (you can't even control-click multiple messages!), and it's always by far the slowest, crankiest, greediest application running on the Windows desktop (that includes Adobe apps!). I shudder at the thought of using it on a Mac, no less on an iPhone.
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Mike G said 4:04PM on 8-08-2008
I just checked my task manager, and Lotus Notes is the 5th app down, sorted by memory (Firefox with 2 tabs open is at 150MB, SAV corporate is at 70MB, Windows Live Messenger is at 32mb, iTuneshelper is at 20mb (and its not even open), and then Lotus notes client at 6mb, with 2 emails, my calendar and my inbox open). Yes, it took them to the latest version to use F5 as the refresh (F9 was the refresh and it still works), but for being slow, cranky and greedy, you either need to clean up your machine, or take it to someone who knows what they are doing.
Rita said 4:34PM on 8-08-2008
The Notes client is certainly not the greatest user experience in the world (although 8.x has gotten much better, including use of the CTRL-Click functionality mentioned above). However, for our company, and many others, the back-end piece, Domino Server, is absolutely perfect. It's rock solid, easy to administer, and doesn't force us to use Windows Server (we run all of our Domino servers on Linux & Solaris). It also allows you to use Outlook as your client if you prefer (we have appx. 400 users who do just that).
chris2 said 3:54PM on 8-08-2008
not *MY* iphone.
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