Who Will Be Your Web Office Provider?
I want to replace both my Windows laptop and my Blackberry with an iPhone. I love my Blackberry, but I don’t like lugging my laptop around. I know I need a laptop sometimes, but if I can just leave it behind more times that will be a big improvement. I think this is a reasonably typical use case. Mobility is the key driver.
I have faith that iPhone will get decent connectivity at some point and that the aftermarket will create a neat foldable keyboard for times when the touch-screen is not enough. So what I need to figure out is: when that happens, who will be my Web Office provider?
The Big Players
Personally, I will only trust a big vendor. Sorry to all the start-ups with cool new Web Office stuff and I hope one of the big guys buys you. My data is just too critical to trust to a company that might disappear, change policy significantly or simply not keep up with the emerging requirements. So with that in mind, the contenders out there currently are:
1. Google. They look like the leader at the moment in Web Office. I am concerned about their respect for privacy and the degree of dominance they have. But Gmail looks like a winner and that may drive other innovations. [Ed: Google is also very strong IMO in Docs & Spreadsheets]
2. Microsoft. I think they are serious about something that is not tied to the legacy and I am sure they will be around and relevant in 10 years. Now that Bill Gates is giving away his money, I will even forgive him all my Ctrl Alt Dlt hell. However I suspect that usability will be an issue.
3. Apple. I suspect they may be the most atuned to mobility as the big driver. Oh and it will look gorgeous; and that is a nice bonus.
4. Amazon. The dark horse. With S3/EC2 they have a platform for developers. This could be the Microsoft story; build the platform first, win over developers and then do apps.
Which Microsoft Office Products are Threatened?
Let's now look at the question: what parts of Microsoft Office are replaceable with Web Office parts?
1. Word. It is often frustrating and it is the least stable of the bunch. I am using Word less frequently these days and instead I use a) Wordpress; b) email (see Outlook section below) and c) Notes, when I want something quickly when there is no connectivity.
When I want a professional looking document that looks good online, I want PDF. How about Wiki to PDF, with formatting done by a specialist? In other words, compatibility with Word is no longer the key driver.
2. Powerpoint. This is also becoming increasingly irrelevant. I often create the text and ask somebody else to create the visuals, as that is not my strength. What I really want to create is more compelling audio-visual presentations that work well online, like Screencasts. This will almost certainly be a collaborative process, with perhaps a creative person on a Mac doing the clever stuff (and he/she won’t be using PPT).
3. Outlook. OK, Microsoft you got me here! When I am in the office, it is open all day long and I use it all the time. I just switched back to Mac and so now it is Entourage, but same difference. The Blackberry has changed my Outlook habits a bit. I now use Blackberry more than Outlook for reminders and notes (a reminder that only works when I am at my desk is useless and I want to write notes when the thoughts come). Blackberry is the primary place where I enter contacts, as it is so easy to save details from an email when adding a new contact; I synch to Outlook primarily as back-up. The Outlook offline mode is increasingly less critical now that I have a Blackberry. Outlook works well as a filing cabinet, but I assume Gmail will catch up on that front; it is their core competency. Replacing Outlook would give some withdrawal pangs, but I can probably deal with it.
4. Excel. This is one program where Microsoft did an absolutely outstanding job. It enables a very high degree of sophistication, without overwhelming the novice/occasional user. Lots of start-ups talk about creating a programming environment that non-programmers can use, but Excel is the one that actually fulfills this promise. It seems to be stable. It is also the most natural candidate for collaboration as version control; with say 5 people updating a forecast, is a real pain and it is so easy to lock at the cell level. I would love to see something really industrial scale that allowed ‚Äúpower users‚Ä? to set up complex spreadsheets that are properly backed-up and maintained, with updates from lots of people according to classic user rights and permission control. I have seen some things that look close.
Conclusion
The barriers to entry in this game are less to do with the software – there seem to be a lot of start-ups with good products – and more do with the infrastructure to support millions of users. This is where Amazon could be a major player if they stay at the infrastructure layer and enable many start-ups to scale on their platform.
A more disruptive innovation could come from a P2P storage system (think Skype for your data). The Cleversafe technology could be an interesting enabler for this, as it also has great data security. A P2P solution based on Cleversafe might be scalable and secure; and perhaps be a platform for start-up Web Office players who don’t have the budget to build a big infrastructure.
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Another option - in many ways more attractive - is the "personal web server". You are your own "Web Office Provider"; "Desktop" on steroids. From the privacy and security standpoint that's the way to go. More over, with an iPhone - like thin client, there's no end to the apps that could be built into a "personal" server. Look to open source for this. I like Google docs - love Google Notebook - fantastic if it was on my own server (wiki on steroids). If you have at least DSL putting your own server on line is a simple task.
Ah come on now Bernard, you still use excel and word? Try google documents, you won't look back.
Google's the one that's impressed me most in terms of Office alternatives; you don't touch on Project, though - game's still open there with the major collaborative players (e.g. Basecamp or Zoho, once you've used up your freebie) being just a teeny bit too expensive for small projects where you want to see a Gant chart...
More locally, I've dropped Word and Apple's Pages altogether in favour of Scrivener these days.
btw: The iphone isn't hard to type on but I wouldn't write a proposal on it. Even with my hot dog size fingers I can manage with the iphone keyboard.
What about Zoho Office?? I was pretty impressed, though I don't tend to collaborate that much.
Web Office complements (and does not compete) offline office. Both Google and Microsoft do not realize this. At least Google has Gears.
I hate Zoho when my internet connection goes kaput. And in the same way I hate offline Office when I need to work on data away form my home office. Yes, I can work and set up Zoho and Microsoft Office manually so that I can have best of both worlds, but that is too much work and is not seamless. Microsoft, stop worrying about balkanization and really help your customers.
Nobody is going to do pivot tables online!?!
Eh heh... Outlook = Entourage? They're certainly not even in the same category. I guess you have been using be latter long at all, or you keep your inbox ever-so spic and span....
You should try using iZoho (Zoho documents) on iPhone. I am sure Google also will have a mobile version soon, I hope they work faster.
Forget about an iphone get a Sony ericsson p990i best phone on the market.
You have built in wifi you have rss feeds which are class and easy to set up so you can read them on the wifi network or on your phone network.
You have a 2 mega pixel camera, you can set it up for email with gmail for Google has created a java program for you just download of Google. It comes with a class golf game for free.
Supports pdf and word documents and excel and has a removable storage card the largest at the minute is 4gb.
Stores mp3 which you can set as your ringtone or message tone.
Has a keyboard on and off screen.
Did i mention it is also 3g so you can video call.
You can write java applications for it since it is Symbian OS.
Opera beta lite 4 is the same as safari where you can zoom in on websites.
It is one of the most under rated phones on the market.
Go to a phone shop and check it out.
The only thing that disappoints me about it is the lack of flash support in the opera browser but I think that is adobe's fault.
You're crazy if you think Microsoft will support something over the long haul that is not tied to their legacy systems. Once offline Office sales begin to falter, you won't see or hear much about online Office.
Zoho project mgr was a pain to learn - i didn't understand the relationship beitween milestones and tasks - and things vanished for (apparently) no reason. Now I'm getting the hang of it, but it was not intuitive.
For the iPhone, what do people do to replace the blackberry push technology?
I really have to disagree about Word. I was actually pretty impressed with the usability improvements in Word 2007.
I think we'll see a tightly integrated Office and Online Office suite from Microsoft, if they don't drop the ball. The blog posting/editing feature in Word 2007 nicely scratches the surface of what they could do there.
I think getting these web office suites up and running on your own personal web server might be the key. It would be great if you could get basic word processor and spreadsheet functionality up and running on your own server in the same way you can setup WordPress or MediaWiki.
Has anyone made an open-source, web-based office suite? That would make this game a lot more interesting.
George,
Web-based office suite - yes (ThinkFree Server Edition), open source - no.
Samir,
A little while ago Read/WriteWeb gave out some beta invites for our ThinkFree Premium a hybrid offline/online office suite. Perfect for when you can't access the internet.
We are slowly extending our beta period. If you send an email to the address listed on the article - http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/50_thinkfree_premium_beta_invites.php - I can make sure you get access if you are interested.
Thanks,
Jonathan
Pathetic! If you will only trust a big vendor, you don't deserve to be writing for a Web 2.0 blog. Early adopters that are willing to take chances on new technology are what make this business tick.
You think usability will be the problem with Microsoft's Web Office. Obviously you haven't used Google's Docs yet. Not that I am criticising. I love the concept and I know it is early days and I'm with you on the longevity issue. But really Goggle Docs usability has a long way to go.
"Personally, I will only trust a big vendor. Sorry to all the start-ups with cool new Web Office stuff and I hope one of the big guys buys you. My data is just too critical to trust to a company that might disappear, change policy significantly or simply not keep up with the emerging requirements."
I fail to see how you can attribute those arguments any weight a world of open document formats and easy access to back up data. Furthermore, it's a mystery to me how your idiosyncratic preferences in online office solutions can form the premise for an analysis of where the market is headed.
Sorry but this article just reads too much like digg-style "if your car were an Apple (Tm), what would it look like" speculation.
Thanks for all the comments, which have been very helpful. I am going to try Zoho and will post my review. They fail my big company criteria but they look like they are very commited to producing something excellent and if they get bought thats fine. I think this is still very, very early in the adoption cycle. Linking back to Alex's recent post about Re-Thinking Crossing the Chasm, it does strike me that this is one market where the Chasm is still alive and well. I was posting from the POV of a "fairly early adopter", closer to Mainstream than most R/WW readers.
I like the idea of a personal web server but without the hassle of managing, making sure server is up and running, data back-ups etc. Thats where I think Web Office with P2P storage and Cleversafe could be a big breakthrough.