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I spent some time (OK, a lot of time) in the usability lab at LS09. One of the things I got to see was Sametime 8.5, running on an iPhone.

This isn’t inteded to be a full blown application – just a web version. The UI is really shapping up nicely. Its very intuitive and they’ve come up with a few handy tricks to make it even easier to use. There’s just one problem: its a website. The second you close your iPhone you no longer will get messages.

Now… the intended use isn’t to be a mobile Sametime client that goes with you (which I would use the heck out of, if I had it), rather a way to access IM services while mobile. That’s still handy.

I haven’t spent a lot of time with other IM apps for the iPhone – mainly because none of them support Sametime and that’s really the only IM software I use anymore; so I’m not sure how those applications handle getting messages when you’re phone is “closed.” I know that a lot of the opportunity to provide a good way of handling this lies on Apple. By their own admission, there needs to be a way to deliver IM alerts to you as simply and efficiently (saving battery life, etc.) as text messages happen on the device today. I honestly don’t know how well other apps are doing that today – but can certainly understand that it would be a HUGE incumbrance to Lotus’ deployment of a true Sametime client app on the iPhone as well.

But they’re smart guys and gals – they’ll figure it out.

Tags: iphone, ls09, sametime