Woowar

Category ibm lotus symphony lotus connections microsoft sharepoint
The Boston Globe has a pretty well-balanced article today entitled IBM's Lotus takes aim at Office market.

The only thing in the article that is, well, odd, is their claim that "SharePoint has captured 34 percent of the business social software market, compared to just 3 percent for Lotus Connections". SharePoint = social software? No, I don't think so. Where did they get that from? Ah yes, I see, "Researchers at Radicati Group, a Palo Alto, Calif., research firm, estimate that SharePoint has captured 34 percent...". Oh dear, poor Boston Globe: sometimes journalists really shouldn't reveal their sources, as it makes them look daft.

Nonetheless, overall this is a good article, counterbalancing

"I think [Lotus Symphony] has potential for taking some business from Office, but I don't see any precipitous drop," said Dwight Davis, a senior analyst at the research firm Ovum Ltd.

with

But Rhodin does point to the dramatic impact of IBM's 1997 decision to support the free Linux operating system. Back then, Linux was considered little more that a geeky toy for computer hobbyists. But IBM's backing legitimized Linux, and today the software is found in critical applications worldwide.

and

Mike Gotta, a collaboration software analyst for Burton Group in Salt Lake City, said it will take years for Lotus's Symphony effort to make a dent with corporate users. But he added that thanks to new products like Connections and Quickr, Lotus's overall product catalog is finally strong enough to allow the company go head to head with Microsoft in the collaboration market.

The pay-off quote from Mike Gotta is my favourite, and I think sums up how the IBM Lotus Business Partner community (not to mention customers!) feel about the post-2005 post-'Workplace' version of IBM:

"All of a sudden," he said, "IBM's firing on all cylinders."

Here here. I've said it before and I'll say it again: the next few years are going to be very interesting.