Although Kajmo was reluctant to name other IBM products that might gain ODF support in the future, he did say potential candidates include applications that create records in a database.

"Really any software that creates a document could support ODF," Kajmo said.

According to Stephen O'Grady, senior analyst at RedMonk, although IBM's product support for ODF was not unexpected, it is a significant move.

"IBM is an active participant in the ODF community for a reason," O'Grady said. "Really what ODF is about is the ability for multiple vendors to provide competing implementations based on a single standard.

"Sun was first out of the gate with StarOffice 8, and now IBM is joining the fray. It is an indication that we can expect to see increasing numbers of competing [ODF] offerings," O'Grady said.