IBM provides tools for social businesses

TORONTO, USA: IBM wants to dislodge Microsoft's desktop-bound business software by touting an update of its Lotus programs designed to harness the mobility and collaboration possible with cloud computing.

The computing giant invited BlackBerry maker Innovation In Motion's co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie to the stage of Lotusphere, an IBM conference in Orlando, on Monday to display IBM's newest wares on RIM's unreleased PlayBook tablet.

Established tech giants and relative upstarts covet opportunities in cloud computing -- using Internet research to move computers and information away from desktops and into remote data centers. The move to cloud-computing is closely linked to the booming use of smartphones and tablet computers, particularly in offices.

Balsillie demonstrated how a PlayBook user could receive an email from a contact in a Lotus email program and quickly look up his profile in Lotus Connections and invite him into a social network.

IBM "can have their cake and eat it too. They can show solidarity with RIM, and together everyone knows they're running on iPad," he said, referring to Apple's tablet.

The global market for social platforms

The global market for social platforms, which allow clients, employees, business partners and suppliers to collaborate and communicate, is expected to nearly triple to $1.8 billion by 2014, according to technology company IDC.

It will be available in the second half of 2011 on RIM and Apple devices as so then as Nokia smartphones and devices using Google's Android operating system.

IBM as well refreshed its Lotus Notes email, Connections file-sharing and networking software, and Lotus Sametime instant messaging software.

The email war

"IBM is trying to get out from the email war and take collaboration ... much deeper into the business with a bigger toolset and deeper ties to business processes," Forrester's Schadler said.

With the April launch of the iPad, Apple virtually created the market for tablets - touchscreen computers halfway between smartphones and laptops. The device is already reaching into corporations where RIM's BlackBerry has long been the mobile extension of choice.

Google's Android operating system, which Samsung runs on its Galaxy Tab, won a 22 percent share of the tablet market in the fourth quarter, Strategy Analytics said

The country to comply with privacy laws

IBM as well said it had spent $42 million to expand cloud-computing facilities in Canada to keep confidential information secure within the country to comply with privacy laws.