More good coverage of IBM’s pre-Lotusphere press release – this time from CNNMoney (emphasis mine):
In advance of its annual Lotusphere conference in Orlando, Florida next week, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the number of global Lotus Notes licenses has reached 145 million, up five million, including purchases by many industry leaders exchanging Microsoft licenses for Lotus collaboration software.
Over the past 15 months ending in the third quarter of 2008, more than 12,000 new organizations bought their first Notes/Domino licenses, and more than half of the Fortune global 100 now use Lotus Notes and Domino. This includes more than 80 percent of the largest banks, consumer product, electronics, insurance, pharmaceutical and telecommunications companies — as well as more than 50 percent of America’s largest 100 companies.
“The shift from pre-Web, proprietary technology to open software that helps people connect, collaborate and innovate at a reasonable cost is undeniable,” said Bob Picciano, general manager, IBM Lotus Software. “There’s no turning back — even our largest competitor is trying to wrap itself in the open standards flag we’ve been flying for years.”
Driven by sales of Notes and Domino, IBM has reported consecutive quarterly growth for its Lotus collaboration software brand for four years through the third quarter of 2008, its last reported quarter, with much of it coming at Microsoft’s expense. Lotus has averaged double-digit growth over the first three quarters of 2008. While marketshare estimates vary, Gartner Dataquest’s most recent report from 2008 indicates a 40 percent share worldwide for Lotus Notes, compared to Microsoft’s 48 percent for Exchange, a narrowing gap.
A number of customers that Microsoft had previously announced would migrate to Exchange are now stalling or abandoning those plans. These organizations recognize the higher cost of potential migration to the competing product and the benefits of deploying Notes/Domino 8 through 8.5 versions. In some cases, the cost of upgrading Notes/Domino has shown to be 20 percent or less of what companies were projecting for migration costs to Exchange.
The boxing gloves are certainly back on this year…
