Fud Buster Friday #7 - Old Data is Pointless

Someone posted a question on my Lotus Software Professionals Linkedin group, join it here, it's the largest Lotus group on Linkedin with around 1,400 members.

They had their executives inundated by these quotes from a Microsoft vendor or employee.One would think they would use more modern data but evidently Microsoft can't afford to buy the reports since 2006.

1) Microsoft’s worldwide market share for integrated collaboration environments was 52.6% (+16.8%), while IBM’s was 39.1% (+10.7%). – IDC, July 2006
2) Microsoft's user base grew by slightly more than 17%, while … IBM’s product set has only grown by 11%, leading to a loss of share. IBM’s aggregate share … is projected to be 26%; Microsoft’s share is projected to be 62%. – Gartner, 2006
3) Microsoft continues to gain market momentum and is selling twice as many messaging server seats as IBM. – Forrester, August 2006

I am sure there is more, and I have covered some of this previously here in FudBuster #1.

Let's see the IDC report. If I am looking at the same one while it showed Microsoft leading, it also showed Lotus had a 13% gain in market share in 2006. Unprecedented if the product was truly dying or being put out to pasture don't you think?

IDC issued a report in July 2007 that illustrates Notes/Domino increased its share of the integrated collaborative environments market in 2006 to 40 percent , up from 39 percent in 2005. Outlook/Exchange’s share of the $2.4 billion market slipped to 51 percent from 53 percent over that same period.

As pointed out here IBM is seeing a huge up swell in all things Lotus and has seen the 13 of 14 quarters growth which is really unexpected in a what is considered a flat growth area. More can be found here

Numbers lie, statistics lie even more, but right now Lotus 9(Rnext) and 10(Rnext+) are being worked on and Lotus committed to Disney for the next 5 years of Lotusphere so there is no end in sight, contrary to what Microsoft tells anyone.

What's Good is Bad, the Microsoft Way

There are those out there in the world that can't stop their thought process and change tactics.
Sharepoint is so easy to use.
It's just email, Exchange can do it.
I hate Lotus Notes, it doesn't connect with anything or the UI is not nice to look at.
Lotus is dying.
Lotus stopped writing code, it's in maintenance mode.

And in Microsoft terms it's true.
Lotus does not wholly rewrite their architecture every few years and make your software useless, as Microsoft has done to Exchange(a few times) AD, Office, even to a point Sharepoint where MOSS v2.0 was/is required to be running as there is no migration path from it.

Lotus in comparison provides that all basic applications and possibly with some adjustments in code to allow for advances in more elaborate applications, can run on the latest version just as the earlier ones.

If you don't believe me, I can show you my mail file, from 1993, Lotus R3 and still functional.

Can you do this with Jet mail? MS Mail? Exchange Mail(came before Outlook for you young kids reading this)? Outlook(2000, 2003 or 2007)? Without some special preformatting?

Now think of mail or data fidelity and keeping those records and tapes of data. How are you going to use that data if it is not even available anymore when the court comes asking for it? You Microsoft lovers have a lot to pay for, yet again some day.

Microsoft makes a living out of taking their mistakes and trumpeting them as successes! As in my previous post where they proclaimed Vista was only half as bad as XP in security flaws.
Thanks, my car runs on 2 tires now too and I should be happy because your design flaws slashed my tires?

And customers keep paying them for this?

Microsoft Apologizes for Vista, then claims it's a Green thing!

This is from an email just received from Microsoft "TechNet Flash: Special Edition: Why should you upgrade to Windows Vista?"
Nothing really to comment aside from, my thoughts which are found in parentehses,and selling the upgrade as a Green initiative is just, I don't know, scraping the barrel for a reason or jumping on the bandwagon of everyone's greeneness?

"When we released Windows Vista, security was clearly a top priority. However, one of the implications of the increased focus on security was that compatibility with Windows Vista was not where we wanted it to be at launch. (So you felt we the public are just stupid and should accept your half baked software?)Over the past eighteen months, Microsoft and our partners have made tremendous progress in compatibility, performance, and battery life.
Here are updates on a few key facts:
• Windows Vista now supports more than 77,000 printers, cameras, speakers and other devices.
• More than 2,700 software programs are “Certified for” or “Works with” Windows Vista-logoed; 97 of the top 100 consumer applications are compatible. (Quicken still doesn't work!)
• 62% of small businesses said Windows Vista saves them time, and 70% said it makes them more productive, according to an independent survey. (Right, and XP was so bad, everyone wants to keep using it because it doesn't make one productive?)
• More than 140 million copies of Windows Vista have been sold, making it the fastest selling operating system in Microsoft history. Even Macs run it. (OEM sales I would bet is 90%)
• 71 percent of Windows Vista customers like it better than their last operating system. (The implication is of ocurse that 71% hated their previous Microsoft OS? XP was that hated and so everyone wants to stay on it?)
• People familiar with Windows Vista are two to three times more likely to have a favorable impression of it. (True, I use it and don't complain, usually)
• Every 10 PCs that switch to Windows Vista is the equivalent of taking an automobile off the road, in terms of greenhouse gases."

So now XP looks bad and Microsoft is trying to convince us we are killing the Earth by using their previous OS! I hope you forward this to all yoru environmental friends.