IBM Lotus Notes on Apple iPhones

IBM Lotus Notes on Apple iPhones

Techtree News Staff, Jan 18, 2008 1603 hrs IST

While IBM and Apple used to be competitors during the early years of the PC industry, the announcement will make them partners in software.

Following in Google's footsteps, IBM is now planning to make Lotus Notes available on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch devices.

A formal announcement is expected at the Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida, next week.

Lotus Notes email software works on IBM's Domino email server program. The service will be made available as a free upgrade to those who already have a Lotus Web access, while new comers will be able to avail the service for $39 per year.

While IBM and Apple used to be competitors during the early years of the PC industry, the announcement will make them partners in software.

Besides, this is the first time for a big third-party application on Apple devices ever since the company announced it would open-up its iPhone and iPod Touch devices to third-party developers.

And Apple's iPhone has come under a fair amount of criticism for the lack of support for business email applications. As of now, corporate emails on the iPhone can be accessed only if the user's company configures and uses the Microsoft Exchange Program.

But with Lotus Notes being made available on the iPhone, and with IBM's claim to having 135 million users of the application worldwide, the iPhone could become a strong competitor to players in the pure business phone segment, for example, Research in Motion (RIM).

In addition to Lotus Notes, IBM is planning on releasing a Lotus Notes package offering a collection of tools like Microsoft Outlook and free Lotus Symphony Productivity Suite similar to Microsoft Office for the iPhone as well as for Mac PCs.