In a fit of Google-envy, IBM Monday went into competition with Gmail, pitching businesses big and small on LotusLive iNotes, a new cloud-based hybrid e-mail service that starts at three buck a head a month.

It claims its cloud-mail is secure and reliable - Gmail has had some problems lately staying up. Even the free version of Gmail, it suggests, ain't worth the "service outages, distracting advertisements or security and privacy concerns that can impact employee productivity and confidence."

iNotes is described as a stripped-down package not overburdened with features whose performance is typical of an on-premise e-mail system and includes access to a personal calendar and contacts as well as a company calendar. All employees in an organization can operate under a single domain, using a shared corporate directory. Inboxes are protected by anti-spam and virus guards that can be individually customized.

It's advertised as ideal for employees of large enterprises who don't need all the e-mail and collaboration software features, or for those without access to company e-mail.

IBM says its widgetry is a hybrid, good for either on- or off-premise messaging and will work standalone or with Lotus Notes and Microsoft Exchange - Microsoft being another target.

According to Blue, the widgetry can accommodate gradual or dramatic migrations to the cloud, while supporting a client's existing on-premise collaboration system.

At $36 a year per user, iNotes is about 28% cheaper than Google Apps Premier, which of course includes web-based office applications, and is about the same as Microsoft's Deskless Worker Suite.

As a come-on, IBM says that half of the global Fortune 100 use its collaboration software and that the LotusLive cloud platform supporting the new service already has more than 18 million e-mail accounts under management.

IBM Lotus Software general manager Bob Picciano argues that "E-mail and other collaboration services are the right entry point for many companies to realize the promise of cloud computing, but only if clients feel confident they're getting business-grade service from a trusted leader in enterprise services."

Nokia and Dow Chemical are on-board. iNotes doesn't need a PC, a smartphone will do; IBM says Nokia's going to use it for its worldwide customer base.

LotusLive was recently introduced to the emerging markets in Africa as part of the IBM Client for Smart Work, which combines cloud computing with Ubuntu Linux and IBM collaboration software. iNotes is the latest addition to the line, which provides file sharing, web conferencing and social networking services.

There's a free 30-day LotusLive iNotes trial available that includes 25 mailboxes with 1GB of storage per mailbox and can handle English, Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Spanish.

IBM is also using its channel to push the thing.

IBM said that as part of its cloud drive, it's got a new public version of its Smart Business End User Support-Service Assist widgetry and that IBM Global Services is offering end users a personalized, self-service portal with faster IT problem resolution for web-savvy users.

The one-stop web portal provides a multi-lingual, cross-channel environment including remote takeover, chat, improved search and data mining of incidents. It integrates with industry standard ticketing systems, reducing the need for end users to call a traditional help desk. Help desk agents can use the product to enhance their service levels.

Pricing is based on a tiered model by volume by end user a month.

See www.lotuslive.com/en/services/inotes.