Buddy Om Malik has an interesting piece on Google’s “Office Killer” hopes and dreams. In the past, Google hasn’t tried to compete directly with Microsoft’s Office suite of apps. Now Fortune magazine says Google is running trials with Proctor & Gamble and GE, letting them test out “Google Office” in preparation for a full scale release. Om says that in addition to P&G and GE, 100,000 small businesses are running trials as well.
He also points out that Google will be charging $50 a year per account and will give users 10GB of storage and tech support via the phone. It’s incredibly interesting to see a company that isn’t linked to OpenOffice actually start to build a fighting chance against Microsoft. The big question is: will people bite?
Google and the Office game [Giga Om]
Seems to me the big question is really “which” people will bite. Web workers? Sure. SOHO and small business? Probably a small but significant percentage will. Mediums-sized businesses to the enterprise? Unlikely unless they can host it – at least for the foreseeable future. Have you read the T&C for Google Apps Premier Edition yet? No public company will sign off on that kind of blanket release of liability to a host.
Completely agree with Marc. I at through a seminar on the product the other day and while it’s very attractive the current corporate landscape just doesn’t seem practical. Basically Google wants you to trust them with your data and there might be a lot of mom & pops that do that, but big business, with the gun shy corporate security types, I just don’t see it happening.