Two statements about mobile Lotus tools caught my attention today (both I found off Paul Mooney’s website):
1. Lotus announced support for Symbian phones in the 8.5 version of the Traveler product. That means that Nokia phones which run that OS can now leverage Traver. I’ve been a Nokia fan for along time (until the iPhone came out) so this is good news. Its also timely since GOOD has no/limited plans to support this OS in future relases (and our company has a number of Nokia devices deployed today that use GOOD software).
2. Paul got his hands on a Lotus/iPhone FAQ (download). In short, it reminds people of the availability of web-based access to Notes calendar, contacts and email in 8.0.2 and a name change of that product to iNotes (good thing I never stoped calling it that in the first place – that’ll be an easy transition for me) in 8.5.
There is also a statement about how IBM understands how important the iPhone is, but they suggest customers contact Apple to express this same thought; use the web based tools; and look at 3rd party solutions to get access to contacts or calendar through NotesCal from the iTunes App Store.
My favorite part of the FAQ was the question asking if IBM recommends companies use the iPhone for enterprise deployment. The answer: “Yes, but be aware…” then there’s a quick comparison to BlackBerry devices and some value-added statements about using that device.
So… my tounge-in-cheek summary of the FAQ is that IBM is saying: “Yes, iPhone is important. Yes, we’re sick of hearing that. The best we can do (for 8.0.2 OR 8.5) is give you support via the web. Please call APPLE and complain, not us. Shouldn’t you be using a BlackBerry anyway? We know we’d like that!”
As for me, I’m just going to take it as a good step forward that IBM released something to address the amount of people who are despriately looking for Notes support as a native app on their iPhone. At least they’re being honest about the whole thing and answering the question. For that, I thank them.
Oh, and hey… now that you’ve got Symbian support built in to Traveler, perhaps those people could refocus their efforts on working on the iPhone – which will probably bring in more new sales revenue than the Nokia business would. Just a thought.
What people here are saying…