InfoWorld: E-mail’s future, pumped look
August 23 2007
The release of Notes 8 prompts InfoWorld's editor-at-large to ponder the future of e-mail clients:
With IBMs launch earlier this month of Lotus Notes 8 and this week's unveiling of Lotus SameTime Version 8, industry analysts say we are beginning to see the evolution of the e-mail client from a communications tool into a coordination channel. And when that happens, IBM may be in the unprecedented position of getting a second chance at knocking off longtime market leader Microsoft Outlook. ...Link: InfoWorld: E-mail's future, pumped look >
Whatever the numbers, most industry analysts are now saying that with this version of Notes is finally on par and competitive with Outlook 2007.By including Open Office, the ODF (Open Document Format) open source desktop productivity suite, IBM is giving companies an unexpected bonus.
"If I put Notes 8 on a desktop and want to include a spreadsheet in an e-mail, with Open Office I don't have to make sure all the receivers have Excel," says Karen Hobert, senior analyst at Burton Group.
But where will the arch e-mail rivals be in five years? A lot depends on how e-mail evolves, Hobert says.
In five years, we will still call it e-mail -- but only because it is hard to get people to change nomenclature, Hobert says. Nevertheless, business users will be working with e-mail in a very different way than they do today.
Post a Comment
- 2
Graham Tucker http://lotusnotesrocks.blogspot.com/ | 8/23/2007 8:44:29 AM
Certainly five years from now, an e-mail client is going to have to be an more powerful beast. Previously we have a client that received e-mail, we them moved into intergration of Instant Messaging with the E-mail client. With Version 8 we now have easy access to RSS feeds as standard, integration to create Spreadsheets, Documents etc. Surely integration with other technologies, SMS, VOIP etc are likely down the line. Instead of E-mail Client, Integrated Communications Client???
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Don McNally http://dmcnally.blogspot.com | 8/23/2007 8:44:35 AM
Ed, you may want to put Ephraim Schwartz's name in as InfoWorld has lots of "editors-at-large".
Also, did you see { Link } article ? Interesting take from Burton Group toward the end.
@1: That was an InfoWorld graphic. You should be able to right click it and save the picture but it probably won't look good if you make it bigger.
- 4
Don McNally http://dmcnally.blogspot.com | 8/23/2007 8:45:38 AM
Hmmm...the link didn't post because I did it wrong. Let's try it again:
{ Link }
- 5
Gregg Eldred http://www.ns-tech.com/blog/geldred.nsf | 8/23/2007 10:39:28 AM
R8 has raised the bar on what constitutes an e-mail client. Will the competition move with the change? I think that it could be more difficult, especially after reading Charles' post:
{ Link }
While some of us may poke at IBM's individual offerings, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a clear vision for those offerings and integration between them.
I am very happy to see that Lotus is getting some great press from this release and that some of the writers are looking down the road. That only benefits the Lotus brand.
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Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 8/23/2007 12:29:40 PM
Ed, did they mean Quickr rather than ClickR?
@2 - Notes has always been an Integrated Communications Client. This is the critical piece of the puzzle that Microsoft is completely lacking (IMO). They're trying to get there by shoving everything into a web browser, and Silverlight is their newest angle on that.
@5 - Microsoft has a lot of integration work to do. :)
- 7
Timothy Briley | 8/23/2007 1:16:32 PM
@6 - "They're (MS) trying to get there by shoving everything into a web browser"
Once again, why is that important? Because browsers suck.
- 8
Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 8/23/2007 2:08:08 PM
@7 - I disagree, Firefox doesn't suck at all ;o)
- 9
Darren http://www.dadams.co.uk | 8/23/2007 2:29:47 PM
@7 - but actually, joking aside, this is a key point. And excuse me if everyone says "yeah, thanks, we know this".
We've seen an attitude where browsers (the 'thin' clients) are the supposed promised land - thin (hmmm) and easy to manage, (unlike bloaty think clients). That's what customers want. And the minute after that they hand you a list of 50 new features they'd like to see in the next version. In other words, have your low-calorie cake and eat it with full-fat enjoyment.
Okay, so Eclipse plus Expeditor with a helping of Notes 8 isn't low-fat but it does have the advantage of the server-managed model. So you get the full-fat features and the manageability angle.
@6 - I agree Charles, Notes has always been an integrated client, but now I feel even more genuine about saying that. It can now provide integrated VoIP, video, voice mail, document management, activity management, RSS and more. And those things can be integrated into the menus and functions at the core of the client. Ron Sebastian's video on YouTube showing the Google Map integration proves that idea.
- 10
Bill Brown | 8/24/2007 8:36:05 AM
@8 Q: Why doesn't Microsoft make a vacuum cleaner?
A: Because it wouldn't suck.
No, as a browser, Firefox desn't suck. Trying to cram too much into a browser, versus deploying a dedicated client, does suck.
It's easy to say we don't have to deploy a client because they already have a browser on their machine. Then you get to troubleshoot browser issues? What browser are they using? Which version? Did the user install some third party tool bar? Do they have a pop-up blocker? Which version JVM do they have? (Thank $DIETY we no longer have to worry about broken M$ JVM issues.)
Notes client issues are far fewer and far easier to troubleshoot than DWA issues.
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Charles Robinson http://cubert-codepoet.blogspot.com | 8/24/2007 9:27:35 AM
@7 - 10: I've been working on some thoughts about this situation. It's a situation not unlike the centralized (mainframe) > decentralized (PC)> centralized (Terminal Services) cycle that's happening on the hardware end.
I love to have the picture in the articel as a wallpaper. Does anyone have it...?