IBM Lotus Symphony
| Company type | Software suite |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | 2007 |
| Defunct | January 2012 |
| Fate | Development ceased, source code donated to Apache Software Foundation |
| Headquarters | Beijing , China |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Office suite (documents, spreadsheets, presentations, web browser) |
| Owner | IBM |
IBM Lotus Symphony was a software suite designed for creating, editing, and sharing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and for web browsing. Initially offered as proprietary commercial software and later as freeware, IBM contributed the suite to the Apache Software Foundation in 2014, where it became part of the open-source Apache OpenOffice project.
Launched in 2007, this suite is unrelated to the 1980s DOS Lotus Symphony and is separate from the earlier Lotus SmartSuite product line.
IBM ceased development in January 2012 with the release of version 3.0.1, redirecting its efforts toward Apache OpenOffice and donating the source code to the Apache Software Foundation.
Features
The IBM Lotus Symphony package comprises:
- IBM Lotus Symphony Documents, a word processing tool
- IBM Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets, a spreadsheet application
- IBM Lotus Symphony Presentations, a presentation creator
- A web browser built on Firefox 3
All components utilize tabbed navigation.
Symphony supports both OpenDocument and proprietary binary Microsoft Office file formats. It offers export capabilities to Portable Document Format (PDF) and can import Office Open XML files. Support for formats from Lotus SmartSuite was discontinued starting with version 3.
The suite is constructed on IBM's Lotus Expeditor platform using the Eclipse Rich Client Platform, combined with core elements from OpenOffice.org 3, blending established open-source frameworks with IBM technology.
In 2009, IBM developed integration tools for BlackBerry devices to connect with IBM business applications and handle ODF formats, enhancing Symphony's functionality.
Version 3.0.1 of Lotus Symphony introduced features such as handling up to one million rows in spreadsheets, bubble chart support, and a revamped home interface. Subsequent maintenance updates were issued in March and November 2012 to address stability and refine features.
A cloud-based edition named LotusLive Symphony debuted in 2011, aiming to provide business users with web-accessible office productivity tools.
History
Lotus Symphony evolved from the IBM Workplace Managed Client component within IBM Workplace. In 2006, IBM released Workplace Managed Client 2.6 which included productivity applications—a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation software—that supported ODF.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag
During the 2009 Lotusphere conference, IBM affirmed its initiative to reduce expenses by transitioning 400,000 staff members from Microsoft Office to Lotus Symphony. Prior to this, in June 2008, IBM had already prompted its 20,000 employees within the 'strong-techies' group to adopt Symphony, and by September 2009, the software became mandatory for all 360,000 employees.
A study from March 2009 revealed that Lotus Symphony captured a 2% market share within the business sector. By 2010, IBM announced that the user base had grown to 12 million, with downloads reaching 50 million by January 2011.
Version release dates
- Beta 1
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- Launched on 18 September 2007
- Beta 2
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- Launched on 5 November 2007
- Beta 3
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- Launched on 17 December 2007
- Supported in 23 languages as of 7 January 2008
- Beta 4
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- Released on 1 February 2008, featuring the introduction of the Lotus Symphony Developer Toolkit.
- Updated version issued on 3 March 2008
- Version 1.0
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- Released on 30 May 2008
- Version 1.1
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- Released on 29 August 2008
- Version 1.2
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- Released on 4 November 2008, adding Mac OS X compatibility
- Updated edition released on 23 February 2009
- Version 1.3
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- Released on 10 June 2009
- Updated edition released on 1 September 2009
- Version 3 Beta
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- Released on 4 February 2010
- Version 3 Beta 2
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- Released on the same date, 4 February 2010
- Included new features such as Visual Basic macros, OLE Objects, embedded audio and video support, nested tables, presentation masters, and DataPilot tables for handling large pivot datasets.
- Version 3 Beta 3
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- Released on 7 June 2010
- Version 3 Beta 4
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- Released on 26 August 2010
- Version 3.0
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- Officially released on 21 October 2010
- Version 3.0 FixPack series
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- FixPack 1: Released on 13 January 2011
- FixPack 2: Released on 20 April 2011
- FixPack 3: Released on 20 July 2011
- Version 3.0.1
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- Released on 23 January 2012
- Version 3.0.1 FixPacks
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- FixPack 1: Released on 27 March 2012
- FixPack 2: Released on 29 November 2012