Microsoft has announced that office 2010 will be an online service and the apps will be available to anyone with a Live account — and will include Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote.
I think this is a great move from Microsoft. This announcement could possibly have come as a result of Google announcing the release of Chrome OS and could very well be Microsoft’s effort at tit for tat play, but I doubt if Microsoft will not go through with this. With Google gaining more ground every day, Microsoft has no option but to live up to any hype it creates if it wants to get back its customer base and create new ones.
Why this move from Microsoft could be detrimental for Google
I love Google. I think Google is the ‘coolest’ software company in the world. They have broken Microsofts strong hold on the the productivity applications market with Google Docs. However, where I enjoy using Googles free services, I also enjoy, as much if not more, working with Office 2007. Office 2007 is a great improvement over Office’s older versions and is truly a phenomenal application suite.
Google, with Google Docs, in reality ‘commoditized‘ productivity software. Granted formatting in Google Docs was not always as visually pleasant as it is in Office desktop versions, the online nature of the service which lead to real time collaboration truly was useful.
Being someone myself who has to collaborate with team members all the time, Google Docs became the most useful tool for me. Never again was I suffer from version mismatches which can arise with just passing around soft copies of documents. However, when it came time to create a final document for presentation, I would invariably gravitate towards Office.
Now with Office 2010 being an online and a native desktop application [with the ability to synch between the two domains], I can see myself [and a host of other current Google Docs users] switching to using Office exclusively for my needs.
People might argue that Office 2010 will still need a subscription for access to more useful features, the fact that I can use only 1 provider for all my document editing needs will convince me to pay for the extra features.
Microsoft has shown great maturity
Microsoft has come out and embraced cloud computing whole heartedly. Infact they have found a way to integrate their core business [i.e. software selling] with a rivals competitive advantage [i.e. Google's ever growing emphasis on cloud computing] to create a new business model.
Good for consumers
This latest development in the world of productivity software is a definite boon for the end users. Google and Microsoft both have a brand name that will create ripples in the market whenever either one of them steps out of line and tries to chart a new path. Speculation about the success or failure of their projects will always be rife - and admittedly they will fail as much as they will succeed. However, the consumers will be the greatest winners in these cyber wars. Both competitors will probably keep trying to out do one another in their quest to enlarge their customer base, keep offering newer and better products for lower prices [or free of cost].
A speculation rife on the internet is that Office 2010 will only work with IE but this fact does not seem to dissuade me from using it. After all, we have to realise that Microsoft has had monopolistic tendencies and expecting them to not try to be one is, atleast for right now, unrealistic.
But a great productivity software for free from one of the biggest software companies in the world seems like a bargain too hard to miss.
