BlackBerry gets fruity with Lotus

BlackBerry maker Research in Motion (RIM) confirmed yesterday that it plans to offer a free download of IBM's Lotus Connections biz social networking software later this year. The deal comes hot on the heels of our report last week that the firm's handset rival Apple has been developing a Lotus Notes client for the iPhone to …

[Simon Goodwin]

So?

"IBM's Lotus Connections will allow corporate users to work together on projects and share ideas through the BlackBerry handset."

Just like phoning someone or sending email then?

I bet Paris will be hanging on every second

[Daniel B.]

Rival handset vendor?

Are we talking abot that handset that can't run 3rd-party native apps? The iPhone is for home use/entertainment, not business, the crackberry is.

Oh well, the hype's up, and the thing's being called a "smartphone". As for Lotus Connections, isn't BES already doing stuff like, umm, extending groupware?

[foof]

@Daniel B.

We haven't found a useful 3rd-party app for the Blackberry yet. In-house development is more trouble that it's worth too. Unless your company got suckered into Exchange there are better phones out there. With the network outages or just generally slow delivery and hardware failures, we're counting the days till the end of our crapberry contract. And the iPhone is currently on the top of our list for a replacement.

[Matt Bryant]

RE: foof

Lol, just send me your Blackberrys when you're through with them, I have a queue of eager users dying to get on BES! Mind you, please make sure you don't install ANY Lotus bloatware on any of them as I insist abused BBs are wiped before they can be added to the BES. Apart from GPS software, I've not needed to install any 3rd party apps ever, the BBs simply do what we need.

[Anonymous Coward]

Smell berry hell

My company makes 3rd party apps for cell phones. The smell berry is the only one that gives us fits.

[Jon]

Re: foof/Matt

iPhone for business ROFL hohoohahahahahahhahaohohohohohohohahahahahhahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahohohohohohohohoh

God thats a good one.

Cant wait for your first helpdesk call saying they have 'lost' their phone in a taxi/pub/ left it on a train/gave it to the wife/kid has stolen it and flogged it on eBay and then the cost of replacing an iPhone each time.

Let me know how you get on!