I.B.M. Puts iPhone in the Lotus Position
Apple's push to make the iPhone a desired device among the world's largest companies should receive a boost this week thanks to I.B.M. — At long last, I.B.M. has issued software which will bring the e-mail, calendar and contacts functions handled …
Context & Ripple Effects
By late 2008, the iPhone was still widely treated inside IT departments as a consumer gadget — a security and management headache rather than a corporate tool. IBM's move to bring Lotus Notes e-mail, calendar and contacts to the device is a direct attempt to legitimize it for the world's largest companies, and it fits IBM's broader campaign against Microsoft's grip on workplace software, including its earlier push to give away office software in a challenge to Microsoft's line. Days later, IBM doubled down on collaboration with the Bluehouse release, signaling that enterprise software was being rebuilt around mobile access.
First-order effects
- Corporate workers on Lotus Notes can now get work e-mail, calendars and contacts natively on the iPhone, removing one of the biggest practical objections IT departments had to approving the device.
- Apple gains an enterprise credibility boost at essentially no cost, while IBM gets a mobile endpoint for its Notes installed base that Microsoft's Exchange-centric ecosystem was not serving.
Second-order effects
- Microsoft faces pressure to make Exchange and its own mobile stack more iPhone-friendly rather than cede those users to Lotus, accelerating a race among enterprise software vendors to support whatever device employees actually want.
- RIM's BlackBerry, whose lock on corporate e-mail was the main barrier to iPhone adoption, sees its core moat — secure messaging — start to erode as rivals certify the iPhone for business use.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward a structural inversion of enterprise IT: instead of companies dictating the device, employees' preferred hardware gets certified by software vendors, shifting leverage from IT buyers to consumer-platform makers.
- If consumer devices keep winning corporate approval, the long arc runs from this kind of compatibility patch toward full vendor partnerships — a trajectory that later produced Apple and IBM jointly building iOS enterprise apps and selling iPhones to business clients.
The trend: Consumer smartphones are being absorbed into the corporate mainstream as enterprise software vendors race to meet employees' device preferences where they already are.