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Yesterday was full of dissapointment and complaining about the lack of a mention of Lotus integration into the iPhone. However, it may be that Lotus never really had a chance to take part in the big show . Apparently Apple and Microsoft have been in talks to license ActiveSync prior to the iPhone’s initial launch. According to an interview with Terry Myerson, corporate vice president for Exchange:

“We started talking with Apple about licensing Exchange ActiveSync before the launch of the iPhone last year.”

If IBM even had a chance to make a mistake in any of this, it was not getting in on the ground floor. Again, I say “if” they had a chance. At this point it seems highly likely to me that Apple made a decision early on that Exchange was the strategic alliance that they needed to kick off enterprise integration. And when Apple makes up their mind on something, there is little that can be done to change it.

Related Links:
Q&A: Microsoft Helps Connect Apple iPhone Users to Microsoft’s Exchange Server