Lotus Domino Support for Nokia Smartphones

Lotus announced Lotus Notes Traveler support for the Nokia S60 3rd Edition platform, and the 80 million Nokia smartphones that employ this platform.

Lotus Notes Traveler for the Nokia S60 3rd Edition platform consists of two components:

• A Lotus Notes Traveler Service (LNTS)
• A Lotus Notes Traveler Client (LNTC)

The LNTS is a Domino server application, which can either be co-hosted with user mail files on a single Domino server, or hosted on a Domino server dedicated to the LNTS. In both cases, the the LNTS has remote access to Notes mail files hosted on other Domino servers.

The LNTC runs as a native application on the Nokia S60 3rd Edition platform. Its role is to synchronize the data stores of native Nokia S60 3rd Edition PIM applications (Email, Calendar, Address book, To-do lists, and Nokia Notes) with data held in Domino-based Notes mail files.

Lotus Notes Traveler supports "push-based" synchronization of Nokia PIM data, with the LNTC only coming to life in response to either an in-session, or an SMS-based, notification sent by the LNTS. Effectively, the LNTS monitors (polls) a user's mail file for updates and informs the LNTC when it detects one, thus obviating the need for the LNTC to poll itself. The selection of in-session or SMS-based notification will be dependent upon a user's data network, data plan, and battery capacity. In general, SMS notifications will be slower, but will use less battery power and fewer data packets.

The protocol employed over the wire by Lotus Notes Traveler is a bandwidth-optimized derivative of SyncML. The changes that Lotus has made to SyncML means that this protocol cannot be used to connect to non-Traveler SyncML clients.

Summary:

• LNTC installation is designed to be extremely simple for users, and will normally be done over-the-air.
• It synchronizes with the native PIM applications of Nokia S60 3rd edition.
• The LNTS for Nokia S60 3rd Edition smartphones will be bundled with Domino 8.5

Comments:

• Valuable additional functionality for Notes/Domino users.
• Initially, there is no support for Notes applications and free/busy searches.
• Level of integration with Sametime instant messaging, Quickr teamspaces on Nokia devices is unclear, though the Lotus Mobile Connect offering does provide access to Sametime presence and Instant Messaging services
• Generally, we are seeing less and less support for pure SyncML. Microsoft ActiveSync, which is effectively MAPI over SyncML, is being licensed and implemented natively by handset manufacturers, sometimes in conjunction with an Outlook-like PIM client (see "Nokia Mail for Exchange"). Lotus has been slow off the mark in this area, and it currently has no licensable ActiveSync equivalent. Perhaps the Traveler protocol could meet this need, but IBM Lotus has left it rather late in the day.

... Nick Shelness and David Ferris