The Lotus Symphony license allows for fairly open distribution of the download package, so we see Symphony available in a lot of places. However, I believe this is the first announcement of Symphony being pre-loaded, OEM-style, on a laptop computer at purchase:
In addition, Intel's smallest and lowest power processor, the Intel Atom, enables the ARCHOS 10 to deliver real computing power at a fraction of the weight, size and cost. The ARCHOS 10 incorporates the familiar Microsoft Windows XP operating system coupled with 160GB hard drive storage. Complementing this is Lotus Symphony, which equips the user with numerous office applications to work efficientlyLink: ARCHOS 10 Mini Laptop Connect, work and play (English press release) >
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Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 1/15/2009 7:57:02 AM
Oh, now it all makes sense... they've been working on this rather than working on new firmware for the Archos 605 ;o)
Strange they've gone with XP - they've favoured stripped-down Linux for some of their other devices. Anyway, great news.
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Erik Brooks | 1/15/2009 8:18:59 AM
Wow, first Lotus product I've heard of being pre-installed in forever. Great!
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Henry Ferlauto http://www.geniusinside.com | 1/15/2009 1:01:18 PM
This is very good news. Pre-loads are a definitive way to gain market share.
Hopefully the first of many to come!
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Edward Doan | 1/15/2009 4:24:51 PM
Fantastic news! The netbook market sounds like a perfect fit for Lotus Symphony. When can we get the former IBM PC Company folks at Lenovo to preload Symphony? =)
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Julian Woodward http://blog.woowar.com | 1/16/2009 12:18:33 AM
Great news Ed.
@2 - yes, sad that they've gone with XP, although not surprising given the disappointing take-up figures for Linux netbooks. { Link }
On their other devices the end user is shielded from the OS, so Linux makes sense. With this there's the rather-the-devil-I-know inertia to get over.
Even worse, though, they've gone with IE - yucky toxic pile of nastiness that it is. But I suppose if you're going to ship these with Windows, then the one technical advantage is the ability to run IE so that Windows/IE-specific things like ActiveX will work.
But the main point is that this is, definitely, a very good direction for Lotus to be heading in. Getting the Lotus brand in front of a few consumers who buy these boxes is great news. I hope it's the first of many such announcements.
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Scott Hooks http://www.bleedyellow.com/blogs/hooks | 1/16/2009 8:42:48 AM
Echo@1: It sure would have been great to have the words "Outlook Express" replaced with a Lotus product.
Awesome news Ed. Just expect some posts saying the mini-laptop should have Notes@Home pre-installed too :-P