Google Apps to end Microsoft Office supremacy?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 22 February 2007 14:03

Your IT - Entertainment

An article at the New York Times says that a unit of Procter & Gamble is moving to the Google Apps suite, while online software pioneer and Microsoft critic Marc Benioff, who is also the CEO of online software as a service firm SalesForce.com was quoted to have said that “We are in the process of phasing out Microsoft Office and Exchange from our company”.

As Google transitions to making revenue from advertising and paid software, Microsoft is on the same path, but still does not offer online versions of the Microsoft Office suite.

They do have online email with Windows Live Messenger, and have offered Outlook Web Access for companies using the Exchange Server for years, but their Microsoft Office Live is more about getting your business online with domain registration and website creation tools, rather than letting you do what Google’s Docs & Spreadsheets offers.

Still, Microsoft’s biggest cash cow alongside Windows is Office, so they’re no doubt not in any rush to disrupt what is still a river of gold flowing at a very fast rate.

Microsoft indicates there are 400 to 500 million users of Office, while Google reports 100,000 small businesses taking up the previous ‘Google Apps for Your Domain’ offer, which the new Google Apps replaces with better features and more storage.

So, while Google haven’t had much real impact yet on Microsoft’s Office sales bottom line, battle for Office supremacy has just entered a whole new phase. Despite Office 2007 which genuinely advances Microsoft Office into a new class of its own, it’s clear that Microsoft work has only just begun in convincing customers to stay while fending off the competition!