Microsoft ready to take on Google's Writely challenge
In response to what looks like a Google run at the Office program suite a Microsoft higher up has stated that Microsoft will be ready for Google should they make a big push into Microsoft's lucrative Office Suite Domain.
Granted Microsoft Office productivity suite won't be going away any time soon, but will a new interface really innovate the technology to the point where a competator such as Google won't be able to match it? If anything Microsoft's change may lead to a few outcomes which the company won't like, the first is that they scare/confuse their current user base and have to switch back to their older interface, i.e. you have a very Office 2003 look and feel. I don't think this will happen but its possible, there is nothing suggesting that people will react to the new design and most people who become confused by it will either relearn it quickly or be just as confused reguardless of Office version. They just can't convince enough people to upgrade, it may be just me but it looks like Office 2007 will be Office 2003 with new UI and some more templates, bottom line people need a reason to upgrade. This is always a problem with Microsoft, it can actually suffer from too much success. Again, this trend doesn't look likely, Microsofts OEM market will guarantee some sort of saturation in the market and the enterprise divisions will do it in time. However, this is most likely to hurt Microsofts short term earnings so expect the Internet critisim flood gates. The last thing, where Google can actually hurt big M, if Microsoft can't compete against a possible Google one two in the office department, it better start rethinking things.
Let me explain, currently the Office Suite is a client side application, i.e. you run it locally on your computer, this is great but what happens if you need to make a quick edit to this document or that in a computer that's not yours. Well this is where Google's Writely acquisition can really muck things up and most importantly the web service will probably be free. Wait, you said Google had a one two punch, where's the two? Well if you can remember back Google and Sun Microsystems said they'd be cooperating on OpenOffice, well if Google can get OpenOffice solid enough to be used by an average user and tightly integrate it with their web services, you've got a huge threat on the horizon if your Microsoft. However, the last factor is the ever lucrative bussiness and enterprise market, which I don't see changing anytime soon as long as Microsoft is smart in its business negotiations. So is Microsoft ready for GOffice? From the looks at it, they aren't but we'll just have to wait and see.
read more | digg story
Granted Microsoft Office productivity suite won't be going away any time soon, but will a new interface really innovate the technology to the point where a competator such as Google won't be able to match it? If anything Microsoft's change may lead to a few outcomes which the company won't like, the first is that they scare/confuse their current user base and have to switch back to their older interface, i.e. you have a very Office 2003 look and feel. I don't think this will happen but its possible, there is nothing suggesting that people will react to the new design and most people who become confused by it will either relearn it quickly or be just as confused reguardless of Office version. They just can't convince enough people to upgrade, it may be just me but it looks like Office 2007 will be Office 2003 with new UI and some more templates, bottom line people need a reason to upgrade. This is always a problem with Microsoft, it can actually suffer from too much success. Again, this trend doesn't look likely, Microsofts OEM market will guarantee some sort of saturation in the market and the enterprise divisions will do it in time. However, this is most likely to hurt Microsofts short term earnings so expect the Internet critisim flood gates. The last thing, where Google can actually hurt big M, if Microsoft can't compete against a possible Google one two in the office department, it better start rethinking things.
Let me explain, currently the Office Suite is a client side application, i.e. you run it locally on your computer, this is great but what happens if you need to make a quick edit to this document or that in a computer that's not yours. Well this is where Google's Writely acquisition can really muck things up and most importantly the web service will probably be free. Wait, you said Google had a one two punch, where's the two? Well if you can remember back Google and Sun Microsystems said they'd be cooperating on OpenOffice, well if Google can get OpenOffice solid enough to be used by an average user and tightly integrate it with their web services, you've got a huge threat on the horizon if your Microsoft. However, the last factor is the ever lucrative bussiness and enterprise market, which I don't see changing anytime soon as long as Microsoft is smart in its business negotiations. So is Microsoft ready for GOffice? From the looks at it, they aren't but we'll just have to wait and see.
read more | digg story
posted by Steve at 12:52 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home