IBM overhypes Lotus Notes for mobile, swipes at Android

IBM is taking a new tack in its ongoing effort to convince the world that its Lotus Notes collaboration package is gaining ground on Microsoft Exchange. In a couple of recent blog postings, Ed Brill, IBM’s director of product management for Lotus software, celebrated the fact that, per IDC, IBM Lotus Notes Traveler is No. 3 among mobile collaboration platforms in terms of mobile subscribers.

Further, he boasted that IBM had the wisdom and foresight to build from scratch a Lotus client for Android that not only compensates for what he describes as the platform’s subpar enterprise-class collaboration capabilities, but also doesn’t infringe on any Microsoft patents in the way that Motorola’s Android phones allegedly do.

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Brill appears to have cherry-picked his facts when he trumpeted Lotus Notes Traveler’s standing among fellow mobile collaboration platforms. In IDC’s announcement about the report, the research company stated that two players dominated the market in 2009: RIM and Microsoft. RIM secured “a commanding 57.2 percent market share (based on revenues); Microsoft finished the year with a 71.5 percent share of the subscriber market. In 2010 and 2011, Microsoft is poised to continue this growth with the explosion of the Android OS and the launch of Windows Phone 7.”

IDC makes no mention at all of IBM in the release — but Brill evidently got his hands on a copy of the $4,500 document and reported this finding (in his own words): “IBM is the No. 3 player in terms of number of mobile subscribers, as measured by use of Lotus Notes Traveler. IDC further points out that IBM’s share is the fastest-growing business mobile email platform in terms of number of subscribers ‘on the heels of stronger adoption of its IBM Lotus Notes Traveler across Symbian and iPhone (and just launched its Android beta in June 2010).'”

Not to be a total killjoy, but if Microsoft holds 71.5 percent of the share of subscribers, IBM’s claim to third place (Brill didn’t specify the figure), doesn’t seem especially impressive. As to IBM’s share being the fastest growing among mobile email platforms, Brill is vague on details. The growth — however large it may be — likely reflects the fact that IBM was behind in rolling out mobile versions of Notes for the major mobile platforms.

Beyond trumpeting Lotus Notes’ imminent mobile release, Brill jumped on the news that Microsoft last week filed a lawsuit against Motorola, accusing the device maker’s Android phones of infringing on Microsoft patents. “It’s pretty clear the suit in part covers the implementation of Exchange ActiveSync protocol for sync of mailbox information, as well as group scheduling,” Brill wrote. “Well, doesn’t IBM Lotus look pretty smart right about now.”

He attributed the Big Blue braininess to the fact that IBM has taken a different approach to bringing Lotus to Android: building a native client for the platform. “[B]uilding clients isn’t necessarily the approach we want to take when many devices (e.g. Apple iOS) have excellent on-board support,” he wrote. “[W]e at IBM decided we can’t rely on the base operating system or device to provide us the enterprise-class capabilities we need. The base Android OS doesn’t include full-featured business email and calendar clients, and some device manufacturers have taken other approaches.”

The upshot in all this, Brill concluded, is that when Notes Traveler hits Android (IBM is shooting for November), users won’t have to be “distracted by market squabbles.” Maybe there’s an implied threat that Motorola Android users face a risk similar to the one faced by BlackBerry users back in 2005, when RIM was sued by NTP for patent infringement. The possibility of a service shutdown? That hardly seems likely.

Speaking of market squabbles, IBM evidently does have a hurdle to leap before Notes Traveler can reach Android: “The fact that AT&T has completely locked their Android-based devices from installing software outside the AT&T Marketplace — meaning we simply can’t get the Android client onto AT&T handsets,” Brill wrote.

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