In a bid to significantly broaden the amount of devices
that can be used to access its email on mobile devices, Lotus has
entered into an agreement with Nokia to support a number of the
latter's S60-based mobile phones.IBM Lotus Notes boasts 140 million licensed users and the result
of the agreement is that more than 80 million people—that is the
number of S60 3rd Edition devices that Nokia claims to have shipped
globally—will be able to purchase Lotus Notes and access its
collaboration capabilities.
The deal will be a coup for Nokia who has been under extreme
pressure in the smartphone market and has seen added competition
from Apple with its iPhone and can expect even more competition
from RIM with the recently launched BlackBerry Storm and the
Android platform from Google who already has T-Mobile offering the
G1 device.
Notes compatibility may tempt those companies looking to invest
in new platforms to support
mobile business applications to stick with their existing Nokia
estate rather than invest in a
Storm or other such alternatives.
From the beginning of December 20008, users will connect to
corporate email accounts via Lotus Domino Server software known as
Lotus Notes Traveller. The software provides real time access to
email, calendar, address book, journal and to-do list data and will
be available for Nokia devices in December 2008
IBM believes that the mobile computing industry has reached a
tipping point and quotes research from its Institute for Business
Value that shows that this year, for the first time, more people in
the world will have a mobile device than a land-line telephone.
“This collaboration means nearly 90% of business email can be
mobilised with Nokia devices, without needing to purchase
additional servers, middleware or licenses," added Soren Petersen,
senior vice president, Nokia. "People need to be connected to their
email, information and network when they are out of the office and
that has to be done conveniently and on their terms."
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