Is Google (Apps) the New Microsoft (Office)?
If mantra number one at Google is “Do No Evil”; then number two has apparently been “We’re Not Going Head to Head with Microsoft”. Google may intend to be a good corporate citizen but there’s no doubt it has Microsoft firmly in its strategic sites after launching Google Apps Premier Edition for the enterprise market. Featuring online e-mail, calendaring, messaging, VoIP, a word processor and a spreadsheet, Google Apps could be an Office-killer.
Of course, there will be plenty of people will be laugh at the idea of a bunch of online services replacing the venerable Office but I look at my own growing adoption of Google services (GMail, Google Reader, Docs and Spreadsheets, Google Blog Search), and I can easily see a time when many businesses will carefully weigh the idea of Google vs. Microsoft. Another fascinating element will be price: Google is offering Apps Premier Edition for $50 per year/year - compared with the $499 that Microsoft wants to charge for Office Professional Edition 2007. Some of Google Apps early adopters include GE & PG.
It would be ludicrous to suggest Google will destroy Office because Office has such a dominate hold on the productivity suite market (anyone still using WordPerfect?) and millions of corporate employees are comfortable with Office. But Google will definitely carve out a healthy amount of market share because unlike Novell and Corel, who weren’t big enough to take on Office when they owned WordPerfect, Google has the financial muscle to go head to head with Microsoft. Google also committed to the online service markets unlike Sun, which used Open Office as strategic toy. This is going to be a fascinating dog fight.
For more, check out GigaOm, which offers up an interesting fact box about Google Apps, including the fact Google can make money by selling it at $50/year, and A View from the Isle, who wonders about relying on a hosted service.
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February 22nd, 2007 at 4:20 pm
I have tried the word processor and spreadsheet solutions, and althoug they seem to work fine, they failed to impress. Now if they remain freeware, no problem, I’m onboard, but if they wat maney… I’m not sure this will work. I”m also not a big fan of relying on hosted services as my core productivity suite.
February 22nd, 2007 at 4:26 pm
Good post.
What we’re really talking about is changing people’s behaviors.
I too find myself changing my behaviors to use online apps such FreshPages.com, http://www.salesforce.com, and BaseCampHQ.com. I love them.
Here’s the question, how will Microsoft reply? They have launched http://www.live.com, I’m sure with the intention to move Office and other apps online…
But will they counter-attack soon enough? Or has Microsoft become an old tired Dinosaur.
Warmly,
JP
February 22nd, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Thanks for the link Mark. It’s going to be interesting for sure.
Given what Google is doing, I wonder when offline versions of apps will start appearing (with online sync, of course).
February 23rd, 2007 at 5:36 pm
Still a few WordPerfect users out there. I just switched from MS Office to WP after leaving a corporate environment and going into business for myself.
February 28th, 2007 at 7:17 am
What about OpenOffice? It´s a free solution to the MS Office product suite and I believe a step before going totally online with Google.
Another thing to be considered is fact that you could not work offline (in a plane for example) with Google apps. And for sure there will be a regular fee to use online tools and OpenOffice is free.
I think that the model relies in between both offline and online, where you do your work in your computer and you go online if collaboration with other teams is required.