Some differing views on Google's new spreadsheet application.
Phil Sim thinks it's a great idea and possibly a killer app, particularly for collaboration.
On the other hand, Jeremy Wright thinks it's all a load of nonsense.
I haven't seen it yet, but where I think it will make a difference is for small offices and homes that don't want to buy MS Office or where they are running older systems that won't play nicely with the latest Office versions.
Where I see Google and others threatening MS Office is by putting out simple and fast software.
Complex software is killing us at the moment: Office, Norton Anti-Virus, Adobe Acrobat and all these other applications are slowing machines and way too complex for the average user.
If Google can put together a basic web-based spreadsheet and word processor package then the reason for 80% of Office purchases vanishes. Particularly in education and workplaces.
It won't kill Office, because Microsoft will still make money selling Office to people that need a word processor that offer mail merge tools and a spreadsheet that can calculate the mean from a range of sub-totals.
What I see a Google Office doing is taking the cream off Microsoft's profits, but not killing it.
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Managed services
One of those ideas that's really good but never seems to work out is the concept of managed services or hosted applications. In theory, they should put us out of business. So why aren't we worried?
Webcentral certainly has some good marketing people getting one of their case studies into today's Australian IT.
Having someone else host your system is good idea on a number of levels. It means your data is more likely to be backed up, you don't have to employ pesky IT people to make sure backups run and data is saved and it doesn't require spending tens of thousands of dollars on servers and stuff.
So why hasn't it taken off?
There's a lot of reasons. One is that all your data is now in someone else's hands, if you don't pay the bill or they go bust you've lost your data.
The second is that you are now wholly reliant on Internet access. No more getting away with a domestic 256/64 plan. The moment the Internet connection goes down, your business does too.
With your entire office using the Internet connection, it means it's going to be slow. So you're going to have to get a fast connection.
All of a sudden, you're looking at over a $1,000 a month for a business grade 1500 ADSL connection or more.
Now of course this means your connection and network are more important than ever. So you are going to need someone reliable to keep your network running. That's why you'll have to call us and why we're not worried.
Webcentral certainly has some good marketing people getting one of their case studies into today's Australian IT.
Having someone else host your system is good idea on a number of levels. It means your data is more likely to be backed up, you don't have to employ pesky IT people to make sure backups run and data is saved and it doesn't require spending tens of thousands of dollars on servers and stuff.
So why hasn't it taken off?
There's a lot of reasons. One is that all your data is now in someone else's hands, if you don't pay the bill or they go bust you've lost your data.
The second is that you are now wholly reliant on Internet access. No more getting away with a domestic 256/64 plan. The moment the Internet connection goes down, your business does too.
With your entire office using the Internet connection, it means it's going to be slow. So you're going to have to get a fast connection.
All of a sudden, you're looking at over a $1,000 a month for a business grade 1500 ADSL connection or more.
Now of course this means your connection and network are more important than ever. So you are going to need someone reliable to keep your network running. That's why you'll have to call us and why we're not worried.
Is Microsoft panicking?
Claims that Microsoft are dropping features from Vista are not a good sign.
Information Week claims MS are dropping various features from Vista.
Given Vista is running extremely late and many of us don't think they are going to make their early 2007 release date it's understandable they would drop features. Dropping accessories allows them to focus on the core product. But a bare system reduces the reasons for users to upgrade.
It's a shame they are dropping the synchronisation feature. This is a feature that many users need and MS seemed to be getting it right with their Synchtoy utility. We can only hope they don't try to bring back the briefcase feature.
We'll have to watch what other features they drop in the race to get Vista to market.
Information Week claims MS are dropping various features from Vista.
Given Vista is running extremely late and many of us don't think they are going to make their early 2007 release date it's understandable they would drop features. Dropping accessories allows them to focus on the core product. But a bare system reduces the reasons for users to upgrade.
It's a shame they are dropping the synchronisation feature. This is a feature that many users need and MS seemed to be getting it right with their Synchtoy utility. We can only hope they don't try to bring back the briefcase feature.
We'll have to watch what other features they drop in the race to get Vista to market.
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