Nokia and IBM on Thursday launched IBM Lotus Notes support for Nokia’s S60-based mobile phones. That means millions of Lotus Notes users will be able to access their e-mail on Nokia devices in December.
Lotus Notes has almost 140 million licensed users. The announcement opens the door for more than 80 million Nokia S60 3rd Edition devices to connect to corporate e-mail accounts through Lotus Domino Server software known as Lotus Notes Traveler. The software provides real-time access to e-mail, calendars, address books, journals and to-do lists.
According to Soren Petersen, senior vice president at Nokia, the deal with Big Blue is another affirmation of the company’s business mobility vision: To establish partnerships with the world’s leading enterprise vendors.
“This collaboration means nearly 90 percent of business e-mail can be mobilized with Nokia devices, without needing to purchase additional servers, middleware or licenses,” Petersen said. “With the presence, position and technology that IBM has in the corporate e-mail market, they are an essential partner for us in enterprise.”
The Rise of Mobile Devices
According to IBM’s Institute for Business Value, this year, for the first time, more people in the world will have a mobile device than a landline telephone. In fact, Big Blue predicts one billion mobile Web users by 2011 and a significant shift in the way the majority of people will interact with the Web over the next decade. Mobile devices already outnumber television sets, credit cards and personal computers.
While Nokia casts the announcement as affirmation of its vision, IBM calls it a major development in its efforts to expand mobile support for the Lotus software portfolio. Secure connection to e-mail is an example of IBM’s Tomorrow at Work, an initiative
that examines a changing work environment and anticipates trends in technology, business, society and culture.
Lotus Sametime for instant messaging…