Lotus lets Outlook step on Notes turf

Lotus will make its Domino groupware server compatible with the Outlook messaging and calendar client product from fierce rival Microsoft.

Outlook is the nearest competitor to Lotus' market-leading Notes software. The move follows a strong year for the IBM subsidiary. In the fourth quarter of last year it added 8.5 million new Notes users, bringing its total worldwide user base to 56 million.

Outgoing chief executive Jeff Papows assured customers and developers at Lotusphere in Florida this week that after 10 years spent developing Notes, Lotus had not thrown in the towel in the corporate messaging client battle.

"We will support Outlook as an alternative messaging client for the Domino server. This is consistent with the long-held belief that we must collaborate with other companies, even those we compete with to offer customer choice," he said.

"We have not conceded the client market here, not one inch," Papows told the 5000-strong audience.

But at a press conference later in the day, he admitted that he did not know what impact the move would have on Lotus' share of the messaging market, and said that it could even reduce it.

"There are a lot of Office users today who are not Domino users. So we'll give some ground in places and gain some in others. I'm confident that in the [market] share wars, both companies are going to compete very effectively," he said.

At the end of 1999 Lotus had 41 per cent of the worldwide messaging client market, compared with Microsoft's 34 per cent and Novell's 18 per cent, according to analyst IDC.

Clive Longbottom, an analyst at researcher Strategy Partners, said the news is a clear admission by Lotus of the popularity of Outlook, but he cautioned that previous announcements of Lotus compatibility with Microsoft products have not delivered smooth interoperability.