| Google Online Office: Not a Microsoft Killer | Today's Top Stories | ||||||||||||
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(Column) - Google today enhanced its online office suite with a Spreadsheets program and formed Google Docs & Spreadsheets, a merger of the company’s earlier acquisition of Writely Word processor and a Spreadsheets application with a single login for ease of use. Although this may appear to be a threat that Microsoft should watch out for, it’s really unsubstantiated. It’s a perceived threat that should be assessed accordingly, but Microsoft shouldn’t launch an online office suite of its own to better compete against Google, even though it has come one step closer to offering an entire suite of office applications. The reasoning for this is clear cut. Reliability: Google is known to be unreliable with its e-mail service, as a number of users have reported losing their data on GMail. While I’m sure Google has resolved the problem (or not), the uncertainty is always there. Even if a tiny percentage of accounts gets locked and deleted, what’s the guarantee that my account won’t be one of them? This is something that Google will have to overcome before it can convert a cluster of Office users. "G" Office Isn’t the Only Option: If Google is hoping to attract the freeware crowd, I’m afraid it’s too late to the market. OpenOffice.org and a plethora of other office suites already do that, although not online. Majority of the time, OEM PCs include a license for Microsoft Office; therefore, a vast number of users already have it preinstalled. There is no reason to make the choice between a paid version and a free alternative if you already have the paid version available to you for "free." With that said, there are few of us who have purchased Microsoft Office over the counter. Again, if we wanted a free version, we wouldn’t have paid for the offline office suite. It’s a matter of choice, and those of us who paid the price, will never likely switch to the online version. In addition to end-users, there are also corporate clients. Since companies try to globalize and use the most used applications with proven reliability, Google offers nothing. No midsized company is going to drop Microsoft Office and rely solely on "G" Office. It just won’t happen, at least not in the foreseeable future. Uncertainty: Relying on the Internet is more dangerous than relying on Google for data. There’s no saying when you might disconnect and end up losing the entire data because you failed to notice. Let’s say you need to print a report that you did last night on Google Docs, what’s to say that you will get connection every time you try to login and print information? As you might expect, saying, "I’m sorry, but I can’t access my online documents." won’t cut it with anyone. Expectancy: A lot of us fear change, and that’s a fact. At the end of the day, it’s not a matter of price, but rather familiarity. If I’m familiar with Microsoft Office and comfortable with its usage, I wouldn’t mind paying $299 for a license that I’m going to use for a minimum of 3-5 years. And let’s face it, a lot of the free alternatives are considerably unpolished than Microsoft’s paid version. Google is battling the same sentiment. In essence, there’s no reason for Microsoft to worry. From corporate clients to home users, it will be difficult to completely drop Microsoft Office and opt for alternatives. They are not anywhere close to what Microsoft offers in a well polished and interconnected suite. This is not to say Microsoft can take it easy and continue to milk us without substantial upgrades. If the difference between the old and new versions is minuscule, paying for the updated version won’t be justifiable. And trust me when I say this, people are still using Office 97 and are perfectly satisfied with it. Thanks to Microsoft’s long-term compatibility initiative, there’s no need to upgrade from Office 97 for users who don’t need the new features. Google can go ahead and try, but it certainly won’t be an Office killer anytime soon. |
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