In the technology world, we tend to look at levels of adoption of new versions as some sort of important indicator of success. If a company releases a new version and customers are slow to adopt it, that is seen as bad. But depending on how the licensing works, it may or may not matter a lot to the software company. Aside from the extremes of 100% adoption (which means you can retire support for the old versiopn) or 0% adoption (which means you have stumbled badly somehow and may not keep customers for long), some number in the middle is almost as good as another.
Chart showing Android version adoption rates, stripped of all context because... does it matter?
So, what about Notes/Domino? I know customers who are on 7.x, 8.5x, 9.x, and a very few who have started using 10.x. Even leaving aside the revenue from licensing, I know that the release of Notes/Domino 10 will enable some to stay on Notes/Domino 9 longer, as they know IBM/HCL (and soon HCL alone) will continue support. They may not move to ND 10 for a couple of years, or may skip it and move to ND 11 when that is released. (I know one customer that is moving from ND 7 to ND 10 in the next few months.)
So, how much does the rate of adoption matter? Obviously, companies can't take advantage of new features and technologies, but businesses move slowly anyway. With luck (and good marketing), new companies may start using Notes. But does it matter if existing users move forward quickly? What is your opinion?
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Tags: IBM HCL IBM Notes IBM Domino