From: Ad 

Rich Gauszka wrote:
> "Ad"  wrote in message
> news:45de93c2$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>> http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=197007903
>>
>> "Google Apps Premier Edition, to be unveiled Thursday, features online
>> e-mail, calendaring, messaging, and talk applications, as well as a word
>> processor and a spreadsheet. The launch follows Google's introduction of a
>> similar suite aimed at consumers last August. The new Premier Edition,
>> however, offers enhancements aimed squarely at corporate environments."
>>
>>
>> Yet another "good enough" office suite?
>>
>> Adam
>
> NO - a rental at $50 a year?
>
>

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/27/google_apps_challenge/

"Google is now head-to-head with Microsoft in the Office Apps market,
as you may have guessed from the recent Google Apps announcement. What you
get from Google is word processing, spreadsheet, calendar, chat, web page
creation, and email.

There are two price points:

    1. It's free. Just log on to Google and register. But prepare to be
advertised at and you'll get less storage space (what Google gives you is
still all you're ever likely to need if you archive your email every year
or two).
    2. Google Apps Premier Edition costs $50 per user per year and you
can use your own branding and domain name on email, etc.

So will it actually take market share from Microsoft? I think the answer is
"yes". Here are the five reasons why:

    1. Google has the brand to make it possible. Free open source office
components have been available for many years, via Open Office (and other
products). They work very well. However, they never dented Microsoft's
monopoly. They may have taken a small sliver of the market, but not yet a
significant slice. The problem (I believe) was branding rather than product
quality. If I was forced to decide, I'd personally go for Open Office
rather than Google Apps, but most organisations wouldn't because
"Who's behind Open Office?". This comes down to branding. Google
has a powerful brand. It was sufficient to convince Proctor and Gamble and
General Electric to set up trials.
    2. Google Apps is not great software, but it is good enough.
Actually, the word processor is really good for collaborating on documents
because its versioning works well and it's easy to understand. The email is
good too. But there's no PowerPoint equivalent yet and the spreadsheet is
weak. But who cares? Microsoft Office is ridiculously over-featured and for
50 per cent of users (if not 80 per cent) Google Apps will be good enough.
    3. Office software costs a small fortune over time. First, you have
to upgrade regularly (or eventually) which never costs nothing. Second,
sometimes staff need to be trained in the new versions (or just to be
effective users) and third, possibly most importantly, there's
administration. When you add it up, you quickly realise that if an
organisation ditches Microsoft Office for just some of its users, it will
probably save more than $50 per Office user per year. The Google offering
is a no-brainer, wherever Google Apps fits the need.
    4. Google isn't done yet. Think of this as release 1.0 of a
server-based office applications suite and you get the picture. Google is
going to build on this. As companies sign up, Google will have users to
support and the users will bitch about the stuff that's inconvenient and it
will all improve in time. Google will gradually move up the food chain to
try to satisfy the more sophisticated users.
    5. Now think Web 2.0. The Google Apps software has all its
interfaces exposed so that other software can link to it. Not more than two
days after Google announced Google Apps, Avaya leapt straight in,
announcing that it was going to integrate its considerable suite of
communications software with Google Apps - its eyes firmly focused on the
SMB market. Salesforce.com will also integrate with Google Apps and
probably most SaaS (Software as a Service) vendors will follow suit. So
without even launching a channels program, Google is acquiring pretty
powerful partners.

So what does it all mean? Well, the last point listed is the one that
really threatens Microsoft. If Google Apps becomes the de facto integrated
Office Suite, Microsoft Office is toast."


Adam

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