iWhat?! Should iNotes be renamed?


Thursday I returned a call from a customer. The customer called because he had heard about Lotus iNotes and since they had iPhones at the company he thought it would be a perfect match for mail on the phone. Well yes – sort of… While iNotes does have three modes and one of them (iNotes UltraLight) works very well on a mobile web browser it’s far from ideal. It actually took me a while to explain that what he was looking for for his “iDevices” wasn’t Lotus iNotes but Lotus Traveler.

Now I know the product names so it was hard for me to understand why it would confuse anybody but after thinking about it some more it’s actually starting to make sense to me. The product name Lotus iNotes is confusing as it suggests that it’s a solution for iDevices which it really isn’t.

I never thought that I would make a case for renaming iNotes but it actually makes sense now.

Now I know that iNotes has been around as an IBM Lotus name long before the rise of the iPod/iPad/iPhone devices but the mind share isn’t on the IBM side. It’s probably confusing more customers than it’s benefitting. Should we return to calling the Lotus iNotes something else? We could probably come up with a shorter name than “IBM Lotus Domino Web Access” but maybe it’s actually quite a good name as it explains what it is. Maybe “IBM Lotus Web Mail” would do. I think I for one will stop referring to Lotus iNotes but that name.

What do you think?

7 thoughts on “iWhat?! Should iNotes be renamed?”

  1. Hi Mikkel,

    Historically the Lotus Notes webmail have been renamed many times (webmail, Domino Web Access – DWA, iNotes,….) so I don’t think it should be renamed one more time. <span lang=”en” class=”” id=”result_box”><span class=”hps” title=”Haz clic para obtener traducciones alternativas”>The Ultralite iNotes</span> mode <span class=”hps” title=”Haz clic para obtener traducciones alternativas”></span><span class=”hps” title=”Haz clic para obtener traducciones alternativas”>is functional</span> <span class=”hps” title=”Haz clic para obtener traducciones alternativas”>for</span> <span class=”hps” title=”Haz clic para obtener traducciones alternativas”>a variety of devices</span> <span class=”hps” title=”Haz clic para obtener traducciones alternativas”>not only for</span> <span class=”hps” title=”Haz clic para obtener traducciones alternativas”>the</span> iEverithings. So, the lack of education or information not justifies a name change. That’s my opinion.

    King Regards,</span>

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  2. I don’t think that Lotus Domino iNotes should be renamed again. Apple doesn’t own a trademark for i"anything" and if someone looking for companion products that go along with his/her i"devices" ends up discovering Lotus Domino iNotes, that’s not a problem at all.

    In fact in order to get Lotus Domino iNotes, you have to buy a Domino Server anyway which will also give you Notes Traveler.

    Even if all you do is searching for "iPhone Lotus Notes" you can hardly miss Lotus Notes Traveler 🙂

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  3. I’m sure even more confusion will come about from the fact that iNotes is also being used to describe the light version of email and calendaring on LotusLive…

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  6. Actually, I think someone should sue someone else.  Either IBM sue Apple or vice-versa.  But then again, I am American.

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  7. That customer’s call is a result of IBM’s branding strategy, which is to use the work, effort and budget of competitors and hitch a ride on that.

    Afterall ibm thought “DWA” was a better name after MS released OWA. And shelved inotes, Then the “i” phenomena hit and presto iNotes made a return. Today’s word of the day is “lazya$$es”.

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