Lotus Traveler in 8.0.1 update

February 13 2008

When Domino 8.0.1 ships next week, one of the anticipated new features is Lotus Notes Traveler, the new server add-in task to provide out-of-the-box mobile support for Windows Mobile devices.  We've made a decision that, for a variety of reasons, Lotus Notes Traveler will be a separate download, available to entitled customers with registration through ibm.com.

Since, in the past, IBM.com has been criticized for an over-abundance of registration processes, I wanted to raise awareness now.  One of the benefits of the separate process is that IBM will have a way to track interest and usage of the Notes Traveler capability.  For me, this is critical data, because all too often in the past, without a means to track usage of a particular feature or add-in, nobody can really scope out how important or useful it is to Notes customers.  By requiring a separate registration and download, one where customers will be asked a few questions about their planned user base, IBM will have much better aggregate information about the use of this feature, and thus, how to continue to invest in it going forward.

I know you are all hoping for some kind of commitment to additional Lotus Traveler supported platforms beyond Windows Mobile.  No commitments as yet, but there are definitely others up for consideration.  However, it is important to note that IBM's strategy is to continue to work with strong partners in this area, including RIM, Motorola Good, Nokia, Sybase iAnywhere, and Visto.  These guys will always have more capabilities than what Notes Traveler offers, with the additional ability to deliver features faster than the Notes/Domino maintenance cycle.

During Lotusphere, I spent a lot of time talking with RIM and Motorola Good Technology.  In the RIM case, their upcoming new release will not only support Domino 8, but also HTML formatting for mail and other goodies.  RIM indicates they now have more than 12,000 BES servers for Domino in production, which is pretty amazing penetration into the Notes/Domino installed base.  You can learn more about the 4.1.5 BES release next week, on what portends to be a busy day in Notes/Domino land, when RIM hosts a webcast showcasing what's new in the 4.1.5 release for Domino.

Ed Brill Highland Park, IL USA Category:  Notes and Domino 8  Add/View Comments [31]

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  1. 1  Frederic Antille  | 2/14/2008 1:17:46 AM

    Hi,

    I show in a short Lotusphere 2008 video on youtube that iPhone can be use in the futur with Lotus Notes.

    Because you didn't mention it in your article I think it's not in the Traveler 8.0.1.

    Am I right ? Is it a next Traveler release ? When it's planned ?

    Thanks for your light ;)

  1. 2  Bastian Wieczorek http://www.lntoolbox.com | 2/14/2008 1:39:06 AM

    Hi,

    why didn´t IBM set up some kind of newsletter (1-2 Months after 8.0.1 was released) with questions about the Lotus Notes Traveler? This can be used to get some really got infos.

    For example for me... I would download the Lotus Notes Traveler only one time. But I work for different companies which use Lotus Notes/Domino [Maybe I should download the traveler with all passport accounts ;-)].

  1. 3  Peter Smith  | 2/14/2008 3:13:59 AM

    @1 My understanding is that the Notes support on iPhone is via DWA - so does not use / need traveler.

  1. 4  Olaf Boerner  | 2/14/2008 3:54:09 AM

    It makes sense to track Traveller Downloads. We had a DNUG Workshop yesterday which concentrated on 8.0.1. It turned out that Lotus Traveller is the most exciting feature for all attendees.

  1. 5  Dag Kvello  | 2/14/2008 6:22:31 AM

    As for not committing to Symbian/BES support...

    Remember one thing, the inclusion of Traveller like functionality with MS Exchange 2003/2007 serves one purpose for MS and one purpose only :

    Sell MORE WinCE/WinMobile phones as this generates revenue for MS.

    IBM/Lotus doesn't sell WinCE/WinMobile devices so the current "US only" Notes Traveller package will pretty much just help Microsoft sell more WinCE/WinMobile devices.

    Platform independence has allways been a strong sellingpoint for Notes/Domino....

    I'm very sorry about the (bad) decission to support WinCE/WinMobile only as that will exclude pretty much all customers we have here in Norway.

  1. 6  Flemming Riis  | 2/14/2008 6:50:02 AM

    -I'm very sorry about the (bad) decission to support WinCE/WinMobile only as that will exclude pretty much all customers we have here in Norway.

    Well lack of support from IBM helps ISV's to make a business

    I dont know why you say US only , its Windows Mobile 5+ only.

  1. 7  Mike Robinson http://www.invcs.com | 2/14/2008 9:36:43 AM

    @5 wow, I can't disagree more. hat's like saying the Domino port to Solaris helps sell more SUN servers

    How can taking away another differentiator b/w Exchange 20007 unified architecture and Domino 8.x be a bad thing? Personally after having seen some of the Windows Mobile 7 stuff, MS is doing what they've always done, take the best features from the market leader and make it their own. So this is very timely.

    My only question is will this be available to anyone with access to the Software Catalog? I've not looked at the registration site yet.

    I'm also hoping that unlike every other Windows Mobile support product for Domino, it uses a plain old NSF to manage data and not SQL Server (I've looked at GOOD, and Commontime and they've all adopted that for what they claim to be perform reasons).

  1. 8  Dag Kvello  | 2/14/2008 11:27:00 AM

    @6 & @7

    Well, In my neck of the woods Symbian is about 70%-80% of the Corporate market for Smartphones. Windows Mobile is pretty much a no-show.

    As has been shown before, It's only in the US that WinCE has a significant part of the market.

    This (obviously) makes Traveler a very nice tool if You're willing to toss out all Your Nokia/Sony-Ericsson devices and replace them with HTC or similar.

    I.E. This is a free, integrated tool that will have little impact in EMEA/ASEAN (look at the market shares for Mobile OS'es). That's why I say US only.

    I didn't imply that it was a bad decision to support WinCE/WinMobile, I only said it was a bad decision to support ONLY WinCE/WinMobile.

    Notes/Domino is a multiplatform product, except in this area.

    WinCE/WinMobile is one of the products MS uses to get customers moving to "All MS, All The Time".

    So, If I have to buy thousands of new WinCE/WinMobile devices, why not just go MS all the way ? I'm pretty sure that will come up.

    P.S. Not to get into a religious fight, but I have used plenty of different phones (WinMobile 3-6) and Symbian S60R1-R3 + S40 models and, well, WinMobile just doesn't cut it for me. It's more annoying than SPAM.

  1. 9  Keith Brooks http://lotustech.blogspot.com | 2/14/2008 11:40:59 AM

    Truly a shame not to include Blackberries in it as well, not that I care I use an HTC device. But my new phone may be a blackberry so now I am torn.

    On the download it seperate, I agree with #2, as a BP I download once, install many. So how does this resolve it?

    Would it not be better to have built in a simple email which would send to Lotus to say it is installed?

    Wait someone would think big brother is spying on them, but you know that is how BES works, among other products too.

  1. 10  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/14/2008 11:43:00 AM

    @8 "As has been shown before, It's only in the US that WinCE has a significant part of the market."

    I dunno, I was in southern Europe last year a few times, as well as places like Israel, and saw a LOT of Windows Mobile devices.

  1. 11  Mike Lazar  | 2/14/2008 11:48:22 AM

    @9 -- There's an excellent BES app for Win Mobile 6. I have an AT&T Tilt (HTC phone), and it works beautifully with our BES.

  1. 12  Bob Warth  | 2/14/2008 12:11:48 PM

    At Lotusphere session BP211 Rob Wunderlich and Jason Hook showed a "Palm v. Windows Mobile v. BlackBerry v. Symbian v. Linux" slide comparing OS vendors by region. It demonstrates the remarkable difference between the North American view and the various non-NA views. If you have access to the presentations it was slide 26. Basically it shows RIM and MS are the big players in NA and Symbian is king (with honorable mention to Linux) everywhere else.

  1. 13  Mark Hughes  | 2/14/2008 3:28:44 PM

    Is there any place that we can get details about features? Website is sorely lacking.

  1. 14  Ken Yee http://www.keysolutions.com/blogs/kenyee.nsf | 2/14/2008 3:54:30 PM

    I'd have to disagree w/ it not being included in the 8.01 installer because it'll be used by a lot of people and it's an extra step in setup; I would have had the user fill out the tracking survey when they installed the server.

    I wish Symbian were more popular in the US...it needs far less reboots than WM. Our telecom carriers just don't carry Symbian much (browse through the phones available to through AT&T wireless, Verizon and T-Mobile's web sites if you're curious). I wanted to upgrade from my Nokia 6620 to the Nokia E70 but the prices never came down because it wasn't popular enough. I ended up w/ a T-Mo Wing (HTC Herald) for 1/3 less than a 2yr old E70. MS really wants people here to adopt WM. The hardware is cheaper because it's so popular and it's changing radically from generation to generation.

    So, having WM be the first platform supported by Notes Traveller makes sense from the perspective that it's the most popular here and Exchange has built-in support for it. Hopefully, they'll add Symbian support as well for the UK folks, but I'd guess Blackberry is 2nd most popular here (but the BES Domino server works well enough that people just use that)...

  1. 15  Mark Hughes  | 2/14/2008 4:12:08 PM

    @14, dont forget about the iPhone!!

  1. 16  Andras Horvath http://lotusszoftverek.blogspot.com | 2/15/2008 2:32:18 AM

    I am eager to install and test Traveller but I have Nokia E90. What about Nokia E series support?

  1. 17  Kevin Mort  | 2/15/2008 8:16:22 AM

    I've adjusted my thoughts on this somewhat over the last few weeks.

    First off I have talked to a couple of folks who are looking at migration to Exchange with the WM support being one of the reasons why. Having this as an option will be a very good thing in those competitive migration situations.

    Now, additionally I understand that the server code of Traveler will only run (at release) on a Domino server on Windows. I expect it requires some image translation so I wouldn't expect i5/OS support but I would like to see Linux server support for Traveler. Someone correct me here if the server requirements are different.

    As to device support, I am one of those nuts who like Palm OS. I understand the Symbian folks and others who want all of their devices supported but honestly I think we take this one step at a time. WM is good for now in Traveler's 1st release.

  1. 18  Vitor Pereira http://www.vitor-pereira.com | 2/15/2008 4:54:03 PM

    @10 "I dunno, I was in southern Europe last year a few times, as well as places like Israel, and saw a LOT of Windows Mobile devices."

    Ed, I believe Symbian OS has around 70% worldwide market share.

  1. 19  Marco Foellmer http://ebf.de | 2/16/2008 2:56:57 AM

    Please IBM make a SDK to enable Business Partners to develop clients for Traveler.

    Thank You

    Cheers Marco

  1. 20  Marco Foellmer http://ebf.de | 2/16/2008 2:59:53 AM

    please consider the global market and not only US.

    thank You.

  1. 21  Tripp Black http://www.mindwatering.com | 2/19/2008 11:21:21 AM

    The DWA support for Safari on the iPhone will be helpful. It basically add's Safari-based iPhone support. That is great. However, I too would like to see enhanced support for the iPhone.

    Basically with IMAP over SSL it has the "inbox" nailed. What's missing is LDAP syncing support from Apple for its Address Book or alternately the kind of sync in iTunes where Lotus Notes is a drop-down option just like Outlook / Entourage when the phone is dropped into its base. Syncing of calendar w/iTunes would be desirable, as well, but 2nd close priority for us. The need for this more "native" support is the same as for my Treo w/CommnTime. Yes, I can get webmail but it's not as wuick as it "natively" having my address book and calendar in the phone. It's the same for the iPhone. "Native" support would mean no Edge is required, and no wait for DWA to load to just a number or e-mail or to check on the rest of today's meetings.

    Thanks

  1. 22  Chris Gleeson  | 2/19/2008 12:39:20 PM

    Traveller is an excellent addition to the Lotus family and I have already had my boss asking me to get this installed (not yet released... wait wait wait!!!).

    I did go to the website at { Link } but did find the registration process sadly lacking in details. Apparently I need to enter my access code... which is what exactly? Definitely have entitlement per that page, little odd not having coherent directions though.

    Oh well, will test it as and when it becomes available.

    Nice one Lotus!

  1. 23  Mark Haller http://www.logicspot.com | 2/21/2008 3:23:04 AM

    Marco's comments on developing companion products for Traveler is great or even a truly open source SDK, whereby the communications/sync/push etc of Traveler is used alongside app dev and so on. My company would jump on this and gladly throw up some apps to a wider community if the opportunity was there.

    If IBM/Lotus allowed developers to create web apps using the Designer client and deliver those apps out via Traveler and hook into push functionality, you guys would have a terrific product. Think of the market potential!

    They could render using the PIE engine - there are 1000s of BPs already developing cross-browser apps with phenomenal code :-)

    Hey, I was also writing to ask how BPs download Traveler - but I've <just> been on the form this morning GMT, and see it's been updated in the last few hours to ask for BP or PA codes! :-)

    Regards

    Mark

  1. 24  Frederic Antille  | 2/22/2008 11:09:12 AM

    22) I agree with you, the registration process is not very user friendly...

    I feel the form as I can 2 days ago but didn't receive any link to download the apps :( and as I can see, on the Bruce Elgort Blog, the software was downloaded 4'000 times...

  1. 25  Daniel Neveceral  | 2/22/2008 2:09:02 PM

    why support symbian?

    because symbian leads with 65% share, ahead of Microsoft on 12%, RIM on 11%, Apple on 7%, and Linux at 5%

    see source { Link }

  1. 26  Rajiv Thomas http://www.notesboy.com | 2/26/2008 5:36:25 AM

    After being a lotus advocate for over 15 years, I guess Lotus/IBM has decided that they want to go make us rethink our alliance. I have waited over a week now for the download link and so far no news.

    I guess Lotus goes the MS way where the licensing is more important than customers especially when they are not geared to do something like that.

    Based on their release date we had committed to a client that we cld do Traveler for them as they wanted to move to MS Exchange/Windows Mobile devices due to recent RIM outages. But now that I still have not received the link I guess we will just have to accept to the client that its not happening.

  1. 27  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 2/26/2008 8:44:09 AM

    @26, I sent you mail.

    @25, don't be misled by those stats --not all Symbian devices are used as "smartphones", while most blackberries and windows mobile devices are.

  1. 28  Frederic Antille  | 2/27/2008 1:38:27 PM

    Are all partner available to receive Traveler 8.0.1 download link ?

    After 1 week, I didn't receive any download link :(

  1. 29  Jimmy Eriksson  | 3/7/2008 1:13:34 PM

    Hi, a lot of my customers have Traveler beta code but as a Business Partner I cannot download it (if I don't ask my customers to register of course, which is not an option). Is there a way for us partners to download?

  1. 30  swapnil http://www.tridentinfo.com | 7/14/2008 1:21:53 AM

    how can i use lotus traveller with in pendrive.

    can i carry my mails & client into pendrive so that in cyber cafe i can use this plug n play device and i can work on my mails.

    thanks

  1. 31  kishore  | 5/29/2009 1:17:39 AM

    Hi

    i installed lotus version8.0.1 and done setup

    but the issue while iam sending mails to other other domains like Gmail & Yahoomail it stores in Spam not in Inbox.

    Pls give me the solution

    Regds

    Kishore.G