There’s talk that Google announced Chrome OS to steal some of the thunder that Microsoft’s going to create next Monday when it announces the online version of its megapopular Office software suite. At least that’s what a plethora of sources tell us. Most of them have the same analysis, that given the facts this makes sense, and that Google is probably as of now the biggest threat to Microsoft’s dominance in the online productivity software market.
Maybe I sound crazy, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say I’m very excited for Office Web, or whatever it’s going to eventually be called. It’s probably going to be more feature-rich than Google Docs, which is not all that hard to do. Docs has all the necessary functionality, but it doesn’t have that same level of polish that Office or even Adobe’s Buzzword have. Call me greedy, but I like to see more than just a big screen of white when I’m doing word processing.
The part of Office Web that excites me is that, assuming Microsoft isn’t stupid, everyone who already has Office should get it for free. This just makes a lot of sense. Corporations and private users alike have dropped lots of money into Microsoft for productivity software, and the only thing that Google Docs provides that Office doesn’t is web functionality. So including online support with the regular version of Office would put a damper on Google’s plans fairly quickly as it would create a whole user base right off the bat, and a user base which presumably would want some integration between its online and offline software. That’s something Microsoft can provide since they own the online software space.
Of course, there’s no guarantee that Microsoft will be smart and provide Office Web to customers at no additional charge. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that Microsoft won’t be dumb and hand the online software business over to Google on a silver platter.
