My turn to talk about Google Apps - it’s the news of the week and no one can stop talking about it. To me, I have Google Apps, but I just can’t get used to their spreadsheets, I need the power of Excel - I’ve migrated in my life through PerfectCalc on a Kaypro II, Lotus 1-2-3, Quattro, Excel and now Excel 2007, which I see as a completely new application that allows you to truly flex all the muscle and power that Excel has to offer.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the days of physical software distribution are numbered - there just isn’t reason for it - and move to flash drives for lords sake. For all the money we spend, a few extra bucks for the distribution medium shouldn’t hurt anyone, especially Microsoft, at all. The only reason someone should have to buy physical software would be in a recovery effort, being able to boot from a USB flash drive and recover, or remove system ailments, etc.
Google Apps has great purpose within workgroup situations with multiple people working on the same documents - in that arena Microsoft hasn’t really gotten any wide adoption of their “Sharepoint” or “Groove” services yet.
Microsoft needs to count on their Office suite of applications as it has long been their mainstay of annual revenue - and a dent, even 10% in their market, will be felt by Mr. Gates in a big way.
Good luck to them both.
