Consumers with Android-supported smartphones can look forward to accessing their e-mail through IBM Lotus Notes Traveler in the very near future. PC World reports that Big Blue is preparing to ship the Android-friendly version of its push-based e-mail software Lotus Notes Traveler.

"Today, IBM is shipping Lotus Notes Traveler 8.5.2.1. New in this release -- the Notes Traveler client for Android OS," wrote Ed Brill, IBM's director of product management for Lotus software, in a blog post this week.

Key features of Lotus Notes Traveler software include two-way synchronization of Notes e-mail, calendar and contact data; remote wipe support for lost or stolen devices; support for multiple device types; and a no-charge mobile solution for entitled Lotus Notes and Domino customers.

The thinking behind Lotus Notes Traveler is that by providing a single point of access to e-mail, calendars, contacts, activities, instant messaging, office documents and collaboration tools, users can better leverage people and resources throughout the enterprise and across the internet.

Lotus Notes Traveler software is included in the IBM Lotus Domino Messaging Client Access License and IBM Lotus Domino Enterprise Client Access License. Lotus Domino Messaging Express and Lotus Domino Collaboration Express customers are also eligible to obtain Lotus Notes Traveler software.

There’s no telling how quickly Lotus Notes Traveler for Android will catch on. Recently, TechZone360.com reported that the U.S. government’s General Services Administration opted to go with Google over Microsoft for internal messaging – a decision that irked many people over at Microsoft. In a Microsoft blog post, the company actually detailed how the GSA will replace “several different versions of IBM's Lotus Notes and Domino software with Google for its own e-mail.”

So far, Lotus Notes software runs on a wide variety of desktop operating systems. These include Apple Mac, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista, SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10 XGL, and RedHat Enterprise Linux 5 Desktop.