Is Google Apps now a real Microsoft Office competitor?

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How to justify the investment.: Google has decided to use (squander?) substantial resources on these applications. Perhaps the decision to do so was based on the effects on morale or a nouveau riche "I can afford it, I'll do it." exuberance.

But now what?

There will be greater reliance on the internet. Using it to augment existing software and adding convenience is a good sales point now. If the internet connection were to fail, the result is inconvenience, not disaster.

People at Google are realistic to observe that the applications provided are neither sufficiently... elaborate nor reliable to become a major source of revenue. But the protests cannot be too loud, because people will some day look past the hope for a Microsoft competitor to all the investment expended on what could best be considered portal give-aways.

And what of Microsoft Office?

Just as there is such a thing as an acceptable price (what many/most will pay for functionality received), so there is acceptable performance.

Office suites are a solved problem. Not many individuals or organizations are looking for an alternative, except perhaps when negotiating licensing fees.

To have Office considered unacceptable, Microsoft would have to insist on a mistake with pricing or fail an implementation like Word Perfect on Windows. These seem unlikely.

An alternative would have to provide better - more - functionality more easily to win a comparison. But which competitor has the resources for that? With an open source entry already holding a substantial part of the anti-Microsoft market, the company is protected from effective competition.

The one company with the resources to create competition is IBM. And IBM is interested in the margins available in software. But OpenOffice seems to provide all the good with little of the investment.

The single most effective step to be taken creating a competitor would be to abandon OpenOffice and make a standing offer to IBM to take over without IP problems, the project to become as proprietary as IBM chooses. If the company wants to provide an office suite as a sales point, let IBM pay for it. If that happens, IBM will go for a broader market to increase profits...

Okay, but it is a speculation about how Office might have competition.; Posted by: Anton Philidor Posted on: 09/10/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use