At Lotusphere 2010, the premier event for the enterprise collaboration community, held recently in Orlando, IBM announced a major expansion of IBM Lotus collaboration software and delivery of enterprise secure mail for Android, the iPhone and Nokia Symbian smartphones. "We believe IBM has taken a leadership position in providing the broadest mail and collaboration support for mobile devices," said Kevin Cavanaugh, vice president, messaging and collaboration, IBM.
General Motors (GM) is playing an innovative role in extending mobile collaboration into the automotive industry. Recently, GM's Chevrolet and OnStar unveiled the auto industry's first smartphone application that will allow Chevrolet Volt owners 24/7 connectivity and control of vehicle functions and OnStar features remotely. OnStar's Mobile Application will allow drivers to communicate with their Volt from devices such as the Apple iPhone. It uses a real-time data connection to perform tasks like setting the charge time and unlocking the doors.
"As we reinvent GM, we're giving our employees the same agility that we give our cars," said Kirk Gutmann, chief strategy and technology officer of General Motors. "We're building a workforce that's mobile, connected and equipped for anything, anytime, anywhere. We have thousands of people on iPhone and BlackBerry devices tying into their Lotus collaboration tools while in motion, increasing their productivity. The capabilities of Lotus Notes Traveler bring IBM's enterprise-grade messaging to the iPhone, Symbian and later, Android-based phones, a big plus for those who want one device for their personal and business lives. Downloading the Lotus Notes Traveler Companion app from the Apple App Store is great news, as is getting IBM social software on the BlackBerry."
IBM has announced plans to expand its enterprise mobile messaging offering in a future release of Lotus Notes Traveler. This will include mail, calendar and contacts support for versions 2.0 and 2.1 of Google's Android mobile operating system. Lotus Notes Traveler is no-charge software that can be downloaded by Lotus Notes customers and provides two-way, over-the-air synchronization of information between Lotus Domino data and mobile devices. In addition, IBM's new application for the iPhone is called IBM Lotus Notes Traveler Companion, a plug-in to view encrypted mail on the iPhone. Available now in the App Store, the Lotus Notes Traveler Companion download allows Lotus Notes users who synchronize their mail, calendar, contacts and Domino mail via Lotus Notes Traveler to view encrypted mail such as confidential business and personal data on the iPhone.
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