Lotus Development Corp say it is delaying the public beta program for the next major release of Notes and Domino by about a month. The IBM division had planned to release the products to public beta this month. But company spokesman Paul Davis said a few features needed rectifying before the software was ready to be made available to early users. Developers have had access to the products – which include the Notes 5 client software, Domino server software and Domino Designer authoring tool – for the last few months. There have been some very significant user interface developments, and we want to make sure that it’s ready, said Davis, who estimated a public beta period of between four to six months before the final version reaches the market. He said the company was still evaluating whether or not the hold-up would delay the final shipment date of the product, originally expected by the end of the year. Lotus is holding its Domino developers conference from October 11 in Palm Springs, California. Meanwhile, reports originating from the Electronic Mail and Messaging Systems newsletter suggest that Microsoft Corp’s Exchange is now out-shipping Notes on a quarter by quarter basis. The newsletter calculates that 3.6 million Exchange server client licenses were sold during the second quarter, compared with 3.1 million Notes client licenses.
