Today is iPhone 2 day
by Volker Weber
You can say this much easier in german: zweiphone. :-)
A couple of months ago, Notes users received a cold shower, when Apple SVP of Product Marketing Phil Schiller explained to the world, what Apple meant with Enterprise support: Exchange ActiveSync licensed from Microsoft and built right into the device as the topmost choice for Mail accounts. Hurry up and you can see it again in HD from 2:30 to 18:00 in this presentation.
IBM was caught completely empty-handed. There was a thundering silence. Well, it's been 3 months and three days — plenty of time — and I am looking forward to what IBM is going to tell its users today. And please let it be a sound roadmap with something better than iNotes.
My crystal ball is as clouded as ever. Come back in two years and read this again: if iNotes is IBM's answer to native Exchange ActiveSync support in the iPhone, then this is going to kill more Notes installations than anything before. Three months from now you will see two kinds of managers in business lounges. Those with the iPhone, and those with iPhone envy.
Comments
I could not agree more. We already have one of our company owners using an iPhone where I work even though we have a BES infrastructure in place.
And the Domino Web Access solution in the 8.5 beta is a joke. try opening emails with long urls in them and the whole width of the url is displayed causing the header section to shrink. Come on IBM, read the iPhone web dev specs, it's a simple change to the css to fix that issue.
@Declan, it's beta. Report the bugs in the forum and they'll get fixed.
@vowe, sorry, no additional news today. iNotes "ultralite" ships in 8.0.2 in August. Third parties are shipping IMAP-based solutions. As for an Exchange activesync-like approach, IBM knows that this is what is needed. Based on how I've seen this play out before, one recommendation I can make to customers is to make sure their Apple representatives know about their interest as much as their IBM Lotus reps.
Do people really have apple reps? I think most people buying this phone are new to Apple products and dont buy macs for the business.
I would just be happy being able to sync calendar and contacts over the wire at this point but guess that is not coming either. At least imap works for mail!
Some new better screen shots of the inotes client are on the 8.5 forumn under my rant of how bad it was, they look much better.
make sure their Apple representatives
Let me translate: "Apple does not play with us". That is pretty bad news for IBM.
iPhone customers talk to their carriers and not to Apple. And managers with iPhone envy don't wait. I know a couple of them with both a BlackBerry and an iPhone. And they want to leave that BlackBerry behind.
I think most people buying this phone are new to Apple products and dont buy macs for the business.
That is about to change. I know of some definite plans to buy iPhones in the hundreds, and even in the thousands.
newer screen shots link of inotes in beta 8.5 forumn
That should be easier.
Screenshots look neat. But do you honestly think that people will accept this and not have their contacts available in the phonebook or their calendar in the native device app? And webmail instead of pushmail?
Nope, notice day at a glance, not even a real calendar.
Maybe with Samsungs new iphone clone we can pretend we have an iphone and use traveler to deliver mail.
Let me translate: "Apple does not play with us". That takes the statement too far. IBMers are at WWDC and have ongoing conversations with Apple. But like RIM, SAP, Salesforce.com in the past, sometimes a vendor needs to hear from actual CUSTOMERS that there is demand, not just from another vendor.
>to customers is to make sure their Apple representatives
This is quite funny. IBM should be able to get a "working relationship" to Apple.
Anyway Lotus should create a server tasks which is able to sync with any active sync device. That should not be too complicated from the technical point of view.
I am aware you are working on Notes, Expeditor and other stuff. I can be more specifi and translate to "Apple is not playing with us on pushmal and device sync".
The conversations with Apple are in the context of push mail and device sync. Regular conversations. Between executives and rank-and-file. Your translator must not be working.
Olaf, it may not be complicated. But you need to license ActiveSync from Microsoft.
Ed, I trust my translator until I see a technical roadmap. Lotus is fond of roadmaps. :-) Also, I did not say you are not talking. I said they are not playing.
> But you need to license ActiveSync from Microsoft.
Yes i know. Is that a problem for IBM Lotus or a financial issue ?
I think it is better than telling customers "no we are not iphone compatible" or even loosing customers.
What do I know? Maybe IBM did not see this threat. It's so easy to dismiss the iPhone as a consumer device. These things take a while.
Apple competes with Microsoft on the smartphone front, and Jobs make no secrets of his disrespect for Windows Mobile. Still, they stroke a deal with Microsoft on ActiveSync, explaining that's the solutions enterprises need. Microsofts tells us all the time, they are winning against Notes. On the iPhone they did.
Both Apple and Microsoft like exclusive deals. What if Microsoft was smart enough to get an exclusive deal on the iPhone? "You can get ActiveSync 50% off if we are the only Enterprise push/sync" sounds like "We give you a good price on Windows, if you don't ship anything but Windows".
While I agree that this isn't a good thing I really don't think that it's going to be a 'game changer' for companies using Notes. Regardless of how much a C-Level exec likes the iPhone I don't see them mandating a massive change in their IT infrastructure to be able to use it. Also, I know a LOT of execs at a lot of companies who absolutely love their Blackberrys.
As for Apple/Microsoft having an exclusive... I doubt that there would be regular conversations between executives regarding push mail and device sync, as Ed noted above, if Microsoft had an exclusive in this area.
The thing that really bothers me about this is that it just reinforces the idea that Lotus Notes is a 2nd class citizen in the corporate messaging market. As someone who has made their living in the Notes world for 15 years and truly believes that it is a better solution, in most cases, than Exchange/Outlook/Sharepoint/etc... that is disappointing.
Kirk, exclusive deals don't (have to) last forever. 12 months would do enough damage.
"Mobile Me - Exchange for the rest of us"
"Enterprise support is done, with Exchange"
No mention of Lotus Notes whatsoever? Apple must really hate IBM...
Oh dear.
They don't hate them. They find them irrelevant.
iPhone has now a global market share of what? 5%? I wouldn't count that as an important signal to IBM...
Besides that, it's more important to have LN Traveler for Symbian as soon as possible!
Any news on that?
It's the dreiphone ;-)
@Kirk: I just see that happen in a company, not big (200 users at 5 locations), but it is a real mover I know: The CTO decided to move away from Notes to Outook, because in his eyes (!) Microsoft has more industry support than IBM. Guess, which phone his wife is using. This is IT reality... IBM wake up!
>iPhone has now a global market share of what? 5%?
The iPhone is the number 2 in the smartphone market.
The borders between the "mobile corporate user" and the "consumer" are vanishing: I am a corporate user AND a consumer and I want ONE device for both. RIM and Apple are going this way with their new devices: BlackBerry Bold goes consumer with an improved browser etc. and iPhone 2 is going enterprise with ActiveSync. iPhone with iNotes ultralite is far from being enterprise: uncomfortable online retrieving instead of just reading automatically pushed messages; far more very expensive if roaming costs apply; no device management.
No IBM - this is not a solution !
one problem with tell your apple rep is apple is a faceless org, while with IBM we get quick resposes from execs ;)
So does anyone have a place for me to contact apple?
Unless the iPhone-SDK-2.0 is full of non-documented API-Calls,
why is it so difficult to create an expanded Traveler-like application task
running on Domino serving the iPhone (via push)?
Domino replication technology is there, why is it so difficult to glue
these parts together?
"The iPhone is the number 2 in the smartphone market."
and I'm currently walking on the moon...
> and I'm currently walking on the moon...
Walking on the moon ... nice idea.
Just enter "iphone smartphone market share" into Google and you will see
