Google Docs gains offline access, now a larger threat to Microsoft
Posted by: in Companies Competitive StrategyFiled under: Products and services, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG)
Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) existing Google Docs web-based productivity product just became quite a bit smarter. Care about it or not, that product just became a front-and-center competitor to Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office software by becoming available to use without an internet connection.
Sounds like a minor event, but Microsoft’s Office productivity software suite brings in billions of dollars in revenue per quarter. It’s one of the company’s most lucrative software packages, and even though there have been freely available alternatives for quite some time, Microsoft Office still reigns supreme for word processing and spreadsheets. One of Google’s massive problems with most of its products centers around offline access. Customers need to have an active world wide web connection to work with virtually all of its web-based products.
Will Google’s word processing and spreadsheet programs begin taking a larger bite out of Microsoft’s Office by offering workable access without an internet connection? For some customers, yes. Tyler Dikman with Cooltronics states this move “gives Google a bigger pool of users to go after with more potential to increase their market share. And it sends a wake up call to Microsoft that Google Docs is not some experiment. This is something Google is investing a lot of time and money to make work.”
This may seem like a small step from Google Docs, but it’s aimed squarely at Microsoft. Whether Google can make inroads into the office software productivity market remains to be seen. However, its efforts just took a massive leap.
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