Comments for Poll: Was Google Apps Premier The Web Office Tipping Point?

Poll: Was Google Apps Premier The Web Office Tipping Point?

2007-02-26T10:33:38Z

There was a lot of talk last week about Google Apps Premier, the Google-supported package of web-based office products. Many people spoke about it as if it was a rival to Microsoft Office. While Google Apps Premier is clearly targeted at small business, there's a feeling that it's also more than suitable for enterprises. Indeed Procter & Gamble Global Business Services and General Electric were wheeled out by Google as early customers of Apps Premier.

So in this week's poll we're asking if you think Google Apps Premier is a tipping point, where a web-based Office Suite has became a viable competitor to Microsoft Office - for small and large businesses alike. Or do you think otherwise? Let us know...

Comment from Neil on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T11:42:06Z

A tipping point indeed. Apps Premier may appear to be targeted at SME's, but let's not pretend that Eric Schmidt intends to keep it this way.

Comment from Paul M. Watson on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T12:32:41Z

On the email front I think it is a "tipping point." So many companies run Exchange but use only a small portion of its features. A hosted solution focused on email is what they need.

On the word-proc/spreadsheet front it has a way to go.

Comment from Rob Mason on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T12:51:58Z

It's not going to stop people buying M$ overnight, but could mark the start of a trend away from them when technology or licence reviews take place.

Comment from Julian on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T12:55:28Z

You've got to be joking... MS Office is profoundly more sophisticated and useful than any web app I've seen. Google spreadsheet is a toy.

That said, 2-3 years from now and I'm convinced it'll cover most of the bases people want. I might be out of touch -- could it be that it is enough for most people? I think tools like Smartsheets and DabbleDB are more interesting -- rather than blindly copying the Office model, they take a hybrid approach (Smartsheets is kinda like project management and spreadsheets mixed up while DabbleDB takes what people often do in spreadsheets and turns them into a super flexible database).

Here's an idea -- and I'm sure I'm not the first -- what would it take to move OpenOffice to the web? That'd be pretty interesting. Actually there's already been a conjoint Sun /Google announcement to this effect, back end of 2005, but I didn't see anything come of it?

Comment from John Milan on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T17:19:06Z

I think the tipping point will arrive when Google has more of a desktop presence. They've dipped their toe in the water with GoogleTalk and browser toolbar extensions. Only by getting on the destkop and providing an integration story can they start a mass migration. Otherwise they'll have to build *everything* online, which has two problems:

1) I'm not even sure its possible to replicate MS Office 100% online
2) That is right up Microsoft's alley; they still have way too many programmers to make an 'out program' strategy work.

Comment from Josh on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T19:07:32Z

When you read their customers page you see that P&G says "P&G will work closely with Google in shaping enterprise characteristics and requirements for these popular tools." -- meaning, it's not really what we need and we're not dropping Office, but someone in our organization will give it a shot. And GE says, "GE is interested in evaluating Google Apps" -- meaning, some of our IT guys will try it out, but we're not dropping Office yet either.

Hardly early adopters (users, perhaps, but adopters, I doubt it). It's not a tipping point, and Microsoft has nothing to worry about right now. If Microsoft acts slowly and doesn't come up with something to address this space soon, then they might start to feel it in the wallet--though I don't think enterprise users will switch for years to come.

Comment from Greg O'Byrne on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T19:27:30Z

It is far too early to call this any type of tipping point. The history of Google's foray into other segments apart from search advertising is decidedly mixed.

http://blog.compete.com/2007/02/20/google-properties-froogle-local-video-blog/

With the advent of Office 2007 and its well received change to the UI with ribbons, MS has taken the office suite in a new direction that should provide differentiation from existing web solutions.

Office suites are certainly an area ripe for change, but the ubiquity of office and primarily the power of excel are going to be hard to replace. When a web app can attach to OLAP cubes...get back in touch with me.

and for fun...http://blog.ask.com/2007/02/the_latest_goog.html

Comment from Marcus Greenwood on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T20:04:09Z

Microsoft's online strategy is almost zero IMHO and this is not good news (soapBox, live.com, etc - don't even get me started ;) ). I'd say that they are safe in the business world for the next few years but in the B2C market they simply don't have any compelling offerings.

Considering the huge headstart they have over *everyone* by setting MSN as the default homepage in most browsers, they have most certainly not used this to their advantage by having a very poor product.

Sure, technically Vista and the new Office might be good, but this has got to be the least important iteration of their core product lines.

The most interesting stuff going on at the moment is on the web from the likes of google, yahoo, and now more recently myspace, facebook and some of the new big(ish) players.

To throw a little conspiracy theory into the mix - I think that Microsoft are fully aware of this and are purposely stifling the development of IE7 because if it were actually any good then it would almost aid their competitors more than MS themselves. I've written a bit more commentary on this here:
http://www.chickerino.com/blog/20070203/microsoft_the_web_standards_and_how_to_keep_making_money_wow_errrrrr/

Regarding google-apps: Of course this doesn't really come anywhere near the power of MSOffice, but...

a.) this is only the first official release so it will improve
b.) it's cheap
c.) online apps *are* the future

Marcus

Comment from Dedicated hosting on 2007-02-26

2007-02-26T20:26:57Z

However, we should wait for any new rennovations in google-apps, perhaps they would match the requirements.

Comment from PohEe.com on 2007-02-26

2007-02-27T01:48:36Z

I been using the Google apps for my websites. IT works awesome. I am very satisfy with their free version. No plan to upgrade to the premium version yet. Perhaps, someone can share their experience on the premium version.

Comment from PohEe.com on 2007-02-26

2007-02-27T01:50:45Z

Wrong link. it should be this link instead. One more thing, how many of you are using google apps?