Who will win the workplace productivity suite war -- Microsoft or Google?

Filed under: Internet, Office, Google, Microsoft, web 2.0

In just four months, Microsoft will release Office 2010, and with it changes the entire outlook of Web apps and cloud computing. Driven by the newbie president of Microsoft's Business Division, Stephen Elop is performing the greatest about-face for the largest-profit-producing software suite ever -- Office produced a profit of $19 billion dollars last year, representing an utterly crazy 64 percent profit margin.

Office isn't giving up on installed applications -- they can't, not with that kind of profit margin -- but with Office 2010 we will see Microsoft's first foray into Web applications. All of the primary applications -- Word, Excel, Access -- will have web-based counterparts, and so far they look good.

But is it too little too late? Will Google's expertise in the arena be enough to keep abreast of the massive amount of capital Microsoft's about to plough into web services? Google offers a great package to businesses -- $50 per person, per year -- but are their nascent web apps enough to satisfy the businesses that utilize the wider gamut of Office's capabilities?

Continue reading Who will win the workplace productivity suite war -- Microsoft or Google?

Who will win the workplace productivity suite war -- Microsoft or Google? originally appeared on Download Squad on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments