Every now and then I browse the free research at Gartner.com. Sometimes you find something of interest …
(I added the coloured text by the way, just so you’d notice)
Distinguish IBM’s Market Vision From Its Workplace Strategy
IBM hopes Workplace will reignite the growth of its user-oriented desktop products, and wants to use the technology to compete more broadly in desktop markets. For now, make buying decisions on the practical product delivery.
IBM’s forward-looking presentations and the 6,000 attendees at the Lotusphere conference in January 2005 suggest that IBM’s collaboration and communication business is going well. However, sales of Lotus products have been virtually flat since 2001 (see “IBM Workplace Provides Opportunities to Grow Software Business”). IBM hopes the new Workplace product line will reignite growth. However, two battles are going on around Workplace. On the one hand, IBM is struggling to market Workplace to a larger audience than now uses Lotus Notes/Domino without alienating that big installed base. On the other hand, Workplace represents IBM’s latest plan to wrest control of the user’s work environment, traditionally viewed as the desktop, away from Microsoft. If you are an IBM customer, don’t let IBM’s battle with Microsoft confuse you or prevent you from addressing the practical concerns raised by Workplace. To keep your focus in the right place, you need to know what’s going on in each battle…
Read the whole analysis at source
