IBM To Release Lotus Symphony For Mac, Notes iPhone Compatibility

[MacRumors]

The Associated Press reports that IBM will be releasing a version of its free Lotus Symphony office suite that is compatible with Macs next week, along with a version of Lotus Notes for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

Lotus Symphony is a free productivity suite consisting of a word processor, spreadsheet application, and presentation application, currently in beta for Windows and Linux. It is based on the Open Document Format (ODF) standard which has been rising in popularity recently.

Meanwhile, iPhone/iPod Touch version of Lotus Notes promises to increase the devices' appeal to the corporate market, which has already reportedly seen some success in the corporate realm despite RIM's continued dominance. While details of how Notes will be implemented on the iPhone were not detailed, the article does state that Apple and IBM have been working together despite the release of an SDK. Note, there have been indications that some may have had early access to the iPhone's forthcoming SDK.

The releases are reportedly part of a new partnership between Apple and IBM. Apple once used IBM's PowerPC processors, however software collaboration breaks relatively new ground for the two companies. IBM says that IBM's search for Microsoft alternatives has brought them together.

"We have a lot in common," IBM spokesman Mike Azzi said. "We're going to cross-pollinate."

Article Link

[Full of Win]

Three Words:

COPY AND PASTE

W/o this, what is the point for the iPhone app?

Also, it sounds like Apple is trying to cover its ass if/when Microsoft pulls the plug on it Office suite. If the next version of Windows is delayed, e.g. Vista, and OS X is still gaining market share, then I'd bet they do the nuclear option and pull the MacOffice plug.

[Evangelion]

Originally Posted by Full of Win

Three Words:
COPY AND PASTE

W/o this, what is the point for the iPhone app?

Um, the iPhone-app in question is basically a groupware-solution. Since we are already using email on the iPhone, why couldn't we use Notes-email as well?

Lotus Symphony is a whole different ball of wax.

[kresh]

I'm want to be excited about Symphony, but it's not like I need another suite of office applications though.

I took advantage of the MS Mac Office "BFD" and "Super Suite Deal". So I received 3 licenses for MS Mac Office 2004 Student and 1 license for MS Mac Office 2008 full version for a grand total of $36.98 plus tax. I just received my $100 rebate from Microsoft. Talk about Microsoft buying back market-share that they lost to iLife '08, it's just WOW!

I felt so bad for selling out to Microsoft that I bought iWork '08 and made a $25 donation to the developers of NeoOffice. All said and done I got all of this for less than MS Office Student on Apple's on-line store.

It makes me wonder what kind of impact IBM can make with Symphony when there are some really awesome applications already in this space for Mac?

IBMwares for iPhone is welcome news though, just to shut up the "iPhone's not for business" crowd.



edit: Sorry, I didn't mean to go on and on like I did

[sunfast]

Interest in OS X like this can only be a positive thing. Especially from a big business player like IBM.

[MrCrowbar]

Meh, I like iWork. Fast, lightweigt, works fine for my needs. And keynote presentations just look better
In my Eyes Open Office is even worse than the Microsoft thing. I just don't want to use something that can't even display and print Text properly without having two letters overlapping. I'll check out what IBM did with it, maybe it's usable.

[davidjearly]

Originally Posted by MrCrowbar

Meh, I like iWork. Fast, lightweigt, works fine for my needs. And keynote presentations just look better
In my Eyes Open Office is even worse than the Microsoft thing. I just don't want to use something that can't even display and print Text properly without having two letters overlapping. I'll check out what IBM did with it, maybe it's usable.

I completely agree. I think iWork is a fantastic package. I am only starting to use Numbers but Keynote is outstanding and Pages is excellent too.

As far as I am concerned, iWork 08 is one of the best value software packages available on the Mac.

[Object-X]

Originally Posted by Full of Win

Three Words:

COPY AND PASTE

W/o this, what is the point for the iPhone app?

Also, it sounds like Apple is trying to cover its ass if/when Microsoft pulls the plug on it Office suite. If the next version of Windows is delayed, e.g. Vista, and OS X is still gaining market share, then I'd bet they do the nuclear option and pull the MacOffice plug.

IBM wants on the iPhone train. IBM sees this as an oppertunity to push thier Lotus software by integrating it nicely with all those iPhone users at the office; which will undoubtably be a very large number. This is a great partnership for Apple, becuase it will help Apple's push into the smart phone market despite not having much presence in the corporate world. It benefits IBM because it gives their office software an advantage over Microsoft's. Now, if IBM would only write a version of Lotus for OS X.

[csimmons]

Originally Posted by Full of Win

Three Words:

COPY AND PASTE

W/o this, what is the point for the iPhone app?

Also, it sounds like Apple is trying to cover its ass if/when Microsoft pulls the plug on it Office suite. If the next version of Windows is delayed, e.g. Vista, and OS X is still gaining market share, then I'd bet they do the nuclear option and pull the MacOffice plug.

If Apple continues to gain share and MS does decide to do the so-called nuclear option, it would be one of the dumbest moves in corporate history.

It simply makes no business sense for MS to pull Office from the Mac. Cutting off your nose to spite your face.

Kind of like the music labels holding back new releases from iTunes in favor of Amazon as a means to "hurt Apple", when the latest stats show that the Amazon Music Store has actually <b>helped boost sales</b> of the iPod.

[Avicdar]

Did anyone see this coming? Surprised as heck..Lotus Notes?

[mkjellman]

if true, this is a big step for apple. IBM still plays a large role in the corporate world and they still make very compelling products. I can't respect what they have done for the industry enough and if they are working with apple on this, it will push the iPhone into the hands of users that want it, but have a stubborn IT department.

[GNUMatrix]

There is a lot they could do with Apple if they were so inclined. They were also suggesting that R8 for OSX was going to be released during MacWorld, weren't they? Would be nice to be on par with the other platforms again.

And if they were to collaborate a bit further, I'm sure I'm not the only person out there that would be interested in DB2 on OSX as well, long rumored but never really materialized...

There are probably dozens of other products as well if they were to want to help Apple get a leg up in the corporate world. And why wouldn't they?

[mattvolp]

This is really, really cool. Does anyone here use it though? How does it compare to other word processors?

[GregA]

Originally Posted by mattvolp

This is really, really cool. Does anyone here use it though? How does it compare to other word processors?

Lotus Symphony is IBM's version of OpenOffice.
ie: it doesn't just use the OpenOffice format... it IS open office, cleaned up by IBM.

(whatever happened to WordPro, Lotus 123, etc?)

[GregA]

Originally Posted by GNUMatrix

There are probably dozens of other products as well if they were to want to help Apple get a leg up in the corporate world. And why wouldn't they?

If IBM decided to support Macs/OSX for corporate accounts worldwide, that would be a huge, huge thing.

All the rest is good too of course (software etc).

[sebastianlewis]

Heh, interesting eh? IBM clearly sees profit in being on Mac OS X.

Originally Posted by Full of Win

Three Words:

COPY AND PASTE

W/o this, what is the point for the iPhone app?

Also, it sounds like Apple is trying to cover its ass if/when Microsoft pulls the plug on it Office suite. If the next version of Windows is delayed, e.g. Vista, and OS X is still gaining market share, then I'd bet they do the nuclear option and pull the MacOffice plug.

By the way, Microsoft makes way too much money off of Office for Mac for them to cancel for a petty reason like that and I'm getting sick of seeing crap like this turn up in forum after forum, you do realize that before there was even a "partnership" between Apple and Microsoft in '97, Microsoft had just formed the MacBU?

The reason for that was probably so that the main Office team could focus on delivering Windows updates faster, but the reason for not canceling was because Microsoft was making too much money off of it (even though the Mac version at the time was outdated).

Given the performance of Microsoft's consumer electronics "attempts" some shareholders would clearly be pissed if Microsoft cut off not only a profitable product, but a profitable product on a GROWING platform so please, PLEASE, cut the crap about Microsoft canceling Office for Mac as a "last resort" to kill off growth for the Mac.

Sebastian

[kingtj]

I totally agree with you. IBM could do a lot by developing a whole line of OS X versions of their products.

The bottom line is, IBM has kissed Microsoft's butt for far too long, and always gotten burned in the end for doing it. They had a really good opportunity to take over the x86 PC market with the OS/2 operating system, but slowly let the whole thing die on the vine -- all because the majority of managers at IBM couldn't see past the "profitability" of offering Windows on their PCs, and releasing Windows-compatible software, instead.

Now where did THAT thinking lead them? Their hugely popular "Thinkpad" line of portables was sold off to Lenovo in China. They've abandoned the desktop PC market. And their "flagship" competitor to Microsoft Office? Well, let's just say you don't see a whole lot of companies standardized on IBM Word-Pro/AMI Pro as their word processor anymore, and it's quickly becoming a good bet that a given company uses MS Outlook and Exchange, vs. Lotus Notes for email/scheduling.

IBM thrives today, only because they changed direction to becoming more of a "solutions provider". There's always more money in the consulting side of things, and custom-configuring things for people who don't want to do it for themselves.

Their software could find a new "niche" if everything was available for Mac OS X though. This would finally legitimize Apple XServes as suitable application servers for business (good for Apple) too.

Originally Posted by GNUMatrix

There is a lot they could do with Apple if they were so inclined. They were also suggesting that R8 for OSX was going to be released during MacWorld, weren't they? Would be nice to be on par with the other platforms again.

And if they were to collaborate a bit further, I'm sure I'm not the only person out there that would be interested in DB2 on OSX as well, long rumored but never really materialized...

There are probably dozens of other products as well if they were to want to help Apple get a leg up in the corporate world. And why wouldn't they?

[oldMac]

Originally Posted by MacRumors

however software collaboration breaks relatively new ground for the two companies.

Relatively new ground?

You're all a bunch of newbies!

Us old guys remember Pink, Taligent and OpenDoc. All of which were big software collaborations between Apple and IBM back in the day. Of course, they all went horribly wrong, too.

[JeffTL]

As a (somewhat begrudging) Lotus Notes user at a university, this is big news and may well sell me an iPod Touch. The server I have to use doesn't have IMAP or SMTP/POP turned on, and the Web main won't even work in Safari on a Mac, much less an iPod or iPhone.

[thejadedmonkey]

This is sooooo cool!!!!111!!one!!!eveven111!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you guys think that maybe one day, like, with their partnership and all, they might even swtch processors to the superior power PC architecture?????? Like OMG!!11!!!1!!11!evenentyfirst!!11!!!!!one!!!!
I hear the G5 is a BEAST!!!!!!!!!



Ok, so this is a good thing. Don't look at it as IBM and Apple partnering, look at it more like IBM sees the benefit of supporting Mac... or in other words, we've finally reached critical mass!

[bugabuga]

*shudder* Lotus office products are usually used only in one case -- when you have to due to company standard. And even the fact it's a re-badged Open Office won't help much It used to be that Lotus interface engineers only had one goal "be different from Microsoft" and I've suffered via those clunky buggy non-intuitive products immersly.
NoooooO! Keep it awaaaaay! Bad office product! Shoo!

[mitsu13gman]

Well, we're on Notes 6.5 here at work, and the current web interface works just fine in Safari on the iPhone.

That said I would really enjoy the coolness factor of being able to access my corporate email from the iPhone's mail interface. I have traveled a lot in the past and being able to get email on the fly (and respond to it) would make travel that much easier. Especially since I never take a laptop with me.

[aristobrat]

Originally Posted by mitsu13gman

Well, we're on Notes 6.5 here at work, and the current web interface works just fine in Safari on the iPhone.

That's good to know. We're on 6.5.5 where I work, and the web interface is unusable in regular Safari and Firefox, so I never tried it on my iPhone.

[bacaramac]

Originally Posted by mitsu13gman

Well, we're on Notes 6.5 here at work, and the current web interface works just fine in Safari on the iPhone.

That said I would really enjoy the coolness factor of being able to access my corporate email from the iPhone's mail interface. I have traveled a lot in the past and being able to get email on the fly (and respond to it) would make travel that much easier. Especially since I never take a laptop with me.

+1 on this note....I use Lotus Notes at work and would love this feature.

[twoodcc]

awesome news. it's good to partner with IBM again, methinks. looking forward to more iPhone apps!