The Web 2.0 Office Suite — dead or alive?
Posted by Jacque on December 18th, 2007
In a recent survey, points out Joe Wilcox at Microsoft Watch, the NPD Group asked nearly 600 PC users: “Have you heard about online, browser-based office productivity applications like Google Docs, Google Spreadsheets, gOffice, etc.?” NPD also asked, “If so, how often do you use them?”
Ninety-four percent of U.S. consumers have never heard of Web-based productivity suite alternatives, and only 0.5 percent have substituted Web-based productivity suites for desktop software such as Microsoft Office.
“The survey results show not only that SAAS [Software as a Service] firms have a long way to go to build brand awareness and trust among PC users. but it points to how powerful the Office brand still is, and how difficult it will probably be for most of these firms to dislodge huge swaths of Office users from the grips of Microsoft,” said Chris Swenson at NPD.
Ars Technica offers some reasons for the so far limited success of online office suites including their lack of visibility, the newness of the industry with not quite fully matured products, and the fact that they mostly target business and education, not the type of consumer that was surveyed.
I would also mention habit and familiarity for the individual consumer who may long have had a Microsoft desktop office suite available at home and/or at work. I tend to keep on using my desktop products even though I am very aware of the online alternatives and have played around with them. However, when I find that the online alternatives can offer me desirable features only available to me if I upgraded my Microsoft Office, I would make a switch. If I often needed to collaborate on documents right now, I would also be ready to move to an online suite.
As we have mentioned here before Google Docs, Google Apps, Zoho, and ThinkFree, are among the web-based services available, while OpenOffice.org and IBM Lotus Symphony are free downloads.
