A new study from market researchers NPD has found that 73% of surveyed PC users have "never heard of and never tried...online, browser-based office productivity applications like Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, gOffice, etc." Roughly 4 percent of respondents said they had heard of these apps and sometimes or often used them.
Blogs around the web are freaking out about how low these adoption numbers are, but I don't think there's really cause for alarm.
Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Watch says it's time to start printing up SKUs, putting them in an otherwise empty box and having computer sales people dish them out during hardware purchases (the .Mac and AppleCare model) or else it's RIP the Web 2.0 Office Suite. Mary Jo Foley at Microsoft Watch says Microsoft is being smart not chasing the small web office market that bloggers insist is the future, but still moving to incorporate online functionality with existing products.
Here's why I don't think there's cause for alarm. First, either these things compete or they don't. Right now Google apps aren't very good. They're good enough for me as a Mac user but they aren't essential, either.
The fact that 20% of surveyed users had heard of Google Apps is a surprise to me, and if you can consistently get 20 people in a room and find that 1 of them actually uses Google Apps - I'd say that's surprisingly strong adoption. There's been very little advertising, there haven't been new distribution channels created on the level that desktop software has developed and all of this is relatively new. Give it a couple of years after colleges have been using Google Apps for awhile and then you'll see some serious adoption. I remember hearing about Facebook when I was in school and thinking, "well that sounds obscure." Look at it now.
Is online collaboration going to be a game changer in the business world? It probably is, and the game will be changed by two groups of stake holders: forward looking players in traditional companies (see our coverage of The Working Group for example) and small, agile companies that can out-compete slower competitors by leveraging tools like online office apps.
We'll see how everything plays out, but for now I think that awareness and adoption is actually surprisingly strong.
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surprise - it turns out that most early/late majority don't really know or care whether their word processor or spreadsheet are delivered online or off. they just want to use what they're used to and they want it to work and be compatible.
i agree that 20% awareness of something for which Google is not really spending to build awareness is pretty impressive.
Posted by: kayvaan | December 18, 2007 5:27 PMIt's Office Suite, not Sweet. No need to publish this comment, just fix the typo ;)
Posted by: Peldi | December 18, 2007 6:06 PM20% x 20 = 4
Posted by: Charlie | December 18, 2007 6:25 PM...but I take your point
Sorry, you're right, didn't read it properly
Posted by: Charlie | December 18, 2007 6:27 PM1. Net users are exploding in "third"-world countries.
2. Huge numbers of these do not carry around bulky laptops.
3. Use of web-apps increasing is natural.
4. The functionality provided by current Google Docs and its competitors are equally segmented and *far* less functional than the fat-client offerings.
5. Better net speeds will improve adoption, but ajax server-based architectures are toast.
6. For more traction the offerings have to be far better in the short term, and equally good or slightly better in the long term.
The answers are coming soon.
Posted by: Joseph Pally | December 19, 2007 1:46 AMThe change wont come from those who currently are using this or that, but from those who are up and coming now.
Posted by: Mikael Bergkvist | December 19, 2007 10:23 AMThe next generation will have a different workflow and approach what they do differently.
This is the way it has always been, from horses to cars, from manual typesetting to digital design of newspapers, and the adoption rate is, exactly, reflecting what one could expect, taking into account the time which has passed and the people involved.
Each time in history this has occurred, a major player or two has taken a dive as a result, and this will no doubt be the case this time as well.