Network World: Real-time access to Notes coming to iPhone, other devices

January 21 2009

Also extensively covered on the blogs and Twitter...official press release is not on the wire yet this morning, but I will post a new entry when it is:

IBM/Lotus for the first time ever will provide users of the iPhone and other mobile devices that support ActiveSync with real-time access to their email, calendars and contacts.

The company plans to announce on Wednesday that it will add support for Microsoft's ActiveSync protocol, which will enable instant over-the-air email delivery to Apple's iPhone 2.0 mail client and other handsets that support the protocol.

The ActiveSync technology will be added later this year to Lotus Notes Traveler, which provides real-time replication between mobile devices and Notes. ...

The ActiveSync support was demonstrated on the iPhone during a session Monday at IBM's annual Lotusphere conference.  Presenter Ed Brill, director of product management for Lotus Software, would only say the company "plans to support ActiveSync in a future version of Lotus Notes Traveler."
We demonstrated and are announcing a plan for ActiveSync support.  It happened to be demonstrated with an iPhone.  As for beta and release, all I can say is, "stay tuned".

Link: Network World: Real-time access to Notes coming to iPhone, other devices >

Ed Brill Lotusphere 2009 Category:  Lotusphere2009  Add/View Comments [25]

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  1. 1  Ralf M Petter  | 1/21/2009 1:11:35 AM

    Yes this will be really very nice, but as always the biggest question for me is will we get other server platforms supported then Windows Server? We are not allowed to use Windows Server in our environment so we really need a Traveler version for i/5 or Linux.

  1. 2  Alan Hamilton  | 1/21/2009 1:21:27 AM

    I wonder why IBM didn't do this in the first place with Traveler. Rather than invent its own protocol (or is it using SyncML?) and clients they could have swallowed the bitter pill of ActiveSync at the beginning and had instant support for Nokia, iPhone and Windows Mobile in one move.

    Maybe this also means that Apple iCal and Address Book will work with Domino when the new version of OS X comes out. The OS support synchronization with Exchange (presumably through ActiveSync) so maybe Domino will be a player there too.

  1. 3  Henning Heinz  | 1/21/2009 1:47:42 AM

    That is great stuff. I never believed that IBM would go that far. I don't own an iPhone but this was really getting a problem for some Domino shops.

    Ok, I'll buy your offence story now.

  1. 4  Ben Poole http://benpoole.com | 1/21/2009 2:34:44 AM

    Good stuff Ed. Adopting ActiveSync is a very pragmatic move, and I think it will reap dividends for you guys.

    Huzzah!

  1. 5  Rick Sizemore  | 1/21/2009 2:49:56 AM

    Greate news but, Apple, please implement a security model that allows reliable mobile wipes, pretty please. I know it goes against the enterprise req to know everything 3 years in advance, compared to apples 3 minutes in the past. ;-)

  1. 6  fr@nk  | 1/21/2009 3:03:41 AM

    @5

    The Iphone supports active sync 2.0 which support Remote Wipe.

    As the remote wipe should be triggered from the Push-Server, the Traveler Server should support remote Wipe. So It's an IBM call in this and not an Apple call (as they already have implemented the clientside of it).

  1. 7  Olaf Boerner http://www.bcc.biz | 1/21/2009 6:36:09 AM

    Finally.

    This is currently the only way to provide an easy mobile access to Domino Mail.

    Customers are seeing ActiveSyn as a standard for mobile device and Domino as a proprietary system if it can not support this.

  1. 8  Mark Hughes  | 1/21/2009 7:20:42 AM

    Well done! IBM is giving us all what we ask for! I guess we just have to be patient. How do we get in the beta?

  1. 9  Neil Wainwright http://www.nexonia.com | 1/21/2009 8:15:20 AM

    Nice work Ed. That is exactly what was needed (others have mentioned it too). It means you can support Windows Mobile devices too...breaking down another barrier. How about XPages for Xcode? :-) Just kidding...I can bet there is already active discussion about how to link the two.

    ...Neil

  1. 10  Paul Robichaux http://www.robichaux.net/blog | 1/21/2009 9:03:08 AM

    Interesting. I for one welcome our new Exchange ActiveSync overlords. { Link }

  1. 11  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/21/2009 9:13:38 AM

    Thanks for linking to your comments, Paul. I can't seem to access your comment system from my Blackberry. Thus, I'll comment here that you must think us fools if there was some deal that would reveal our sales data to Microsoft. Further, I have no clue where you would come up with a spin that there is little overlap between iPhone and Notes customers. We have been shipping Inotes (Domino Web Access) for the IPhone for siz months and have seen huge take-up. We also have partners shipping support as well like Sybase iAnywhere.

    I suggest leaving the analysis for the analysts, not the Redmond talking points.

  1. 12  sannie  | 1/21/2009 9:28:17 AM

    @Paul Robichaux Writing an article like this an disable comments. That puts you in a weak position.

  1. 13  sannie  | 1/21/2009 9:28:19 AM

    @Paul Robichaux Writing an article like this an disable comments. That puts you in a weak position.

  1. 14  sannie  | 1/21/2009 9:40:24 AM

    Seems that Paul does not know what blogging is about :-). He wrote one of the worst blog entries I ever read. He wrote the article like a real M$ consultant....everything the others do is bad...

    Personally I think the market share of WM will decrease. And about the protocol. If it's good, why write your own? M$ is good in bad copies of other people's stuff.

    I am happy to see a lot of companies reconsidering their M$ investments....I can tell you some stories about that!

    And about disabling comments....that's really weak.

  1. 15  Paul Robichaux http://www.robichaux.net/blog | 1/21/2009 10:18:43 AM

    @11 no, I don't think you're fools, but given the licensing terms for EAS, I have reason to believe that Microsoft now has more data, rather than less, about your sales than they did before you licensed EAS. I admit that I don't have any concrete data about overlap. Since you do, why not share it?

    As for comments: yes, they're broken. I thought I had fixed them yesterday, but apparently not. To sannie and any other lurking conspiracy theorists, comments have been broken for several months, so I'm not doing it just to spite you.

  1. 16  sannie  | 1/21/2009 12:49:37 PM

    @Paul Robichaux LOL so you indead are one of thos M$ consultants who is not able to fix problems......damn that is to easy sorry :-)

  1. 17  Timothy Briley  | 1/21/2009 2:04:11 PM

    @16 - sannie, if you are going to talk trash, at least have the guts to use both your first AND last name.

    Even better would be to drop the trash talking.

  1. 18  Paul Robichaux http://www.robichaux.net/blog | 1/21/2009 2:28:39 PM

    @16 yep, that's right-- I'm too busy fixing actual problems for paying customers to waste time on my LAMP-based blog.

  1. 19  Henning Heinz  | 1/21/2009 4:15:04 PM

    Ah yes, MS Exchange indeed can be a pain keeping you busy as hell. Good for you, not so for your customers.

    I expected that this will drive some Microsoft Junkies mad but for me this is only showing IBM's ability to execute.

    This is a great message to sell and goes far beyond iPhone support.

  1. 20  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 1/21/2009 10:35:41 PM

    @15 One of my lessons learned in the first hundred days of being back in product management is that the phrase "they're not that clever" applies more often than one would think. The theories and reasons you outline on your blog certainly get points for creativity, but not for accuracy. Not sure why it is necessary, relevant, or helpful for me to give them more attention on a specific level.

  1. 21  sannie  | 1/22/2009 8:21:57 AM

    @18 At least you have time to check the reactions on this blog :-)

    @17 Probably you are friends with Paul....and by the way Sannie is my name.....Sorry can't help it.

  1. 22  Timothy Briley  | 1/22/2009 8:37:38 AM

    @21 - I've never met Paul. I usually disagree with his posts. But you're just being an ass.

    As far as "Sannie is my name" goes, you don't have a last name?

  1. 23  Mike Eovino http://dominoiphone.wordpress.com/ | 2/14/2009 9:20:24 AM

    @Ed - Just another "me too" thank you comment. I am certain that this deal did not happen overnight, so I thank you and all at IBM Lotus for your hard work on this. To all those that ask "why didn't they do this before?" - none of us have any idea how long this deal has been in the works.

    Mixed in with the new look for mail in Domino 8 and the new web mail, this makes Domino continue to be a good solution.

    @Paul - It doesn't matter HOW MANY iPhones there are in Domino enterprises. Given the price of the device (factoring in the data plan), they tend to be in the hands of thought leaders in an enterprise (upper-level executives that can afford the device or technologically savvy individuals that can be IT's greatest asset or biggest thorn in the side). When we can support their iPhones via ActiveSync instead of IMAP or some other Rube Goldbergian solution (check out my blog for some of the crap we've tried in the hunt for supporting the iPhone), it's a huge win for us.

  1. 24  Tony Frazier http://www.tonyfrazier.com | 3/25/2009 5:18:02 PM

    @Ed, Can you give any update on the status of this? Is there a beta program and are you looking for customers to participate? Any expected release dates?

  1. 25  Ed Brill http://www.edbrill.com | 3/25/2009 9:02:24 PM

    Actually, no, I can't give an update yet. The development team is working hard on building the ActiveSync protocol into Traveler, but in terms of beta etc., that's still all to be announced. Traveler has not previously had a public beta approach, but I'm hoping to do one mid-cycle for this update.

    As described at Lotusphere, this update to Traveler is planned to ship in the second half of 2009.