The Biz of Coding

The Writely acquisition — Prelude to an Office Suite War?

by Ujwal Tickoo on March 18th, 2006

This post continues from my March 16th post on the possibility of Google Office trying to compete with MS Office. I write this post with deep satisfaction and a big smile. Eric Schmidt validated my "No-it-won’t-happen" views on an Office War between Google and Microsoft. An article by Andrew Orlowski on The Register states that Google’s CEO denied any plans of entering the MS Office Market. According to the article (that quotes Schmidt also):

Google bought the bobbleware start-up Writely…because Google could use a good, web-based rich text editor. "Office is not the business we’re in," Schmidt told journalists in New York….Writely’s creator agreed. If you want an analogy, Write is as much of an Office-killer as a catapult and an apple are a Missle Defense Shield — but that didn’t stop hundreds of hacks getting their Office war on.

I will however continue with the reasons of why (A) Google Office doesn’t stand a good chance trying to compete with Microsoft Office (B) and what could be Google’s interest in buying/building components that look somewhat similar to those that exist in MS Office which led to several bloggers and Matt Rand at Forbes.com to declare that an Office War was imminent!.

2) As I mentioned above, Google is not in the Office business as Microsoft is.

If Google is as smart as it is considered to be — it would take on Microsoft mainly on its own turf and terms — the Search business. Microsoft can bleed Google out on the Office turf, as it bled Corel and several others. Even now a majority of the world uses desktop PCs and MS Office (at office or home) to churn out text, presentation, or financial documents. There is a significant amount of data stored in MS Office document formats. It would be a pain to switch to Google’s (or anyone elses) Office — no matter how rosy someone paints the transition picture to be.

Then why did several industry watchers consider the Writely acquisition as something significant? That was because only a disruptive innovation in Office products could end up killing Microsoft Office. To several folks:

(a) Google’s free products served to consumers through a browser on the Internet appeared disruptive.

(b) Google has the brand recognition amongst consumers to pull it off

(c) Finally, though less significant, Google has become the rallying point for the kill-MS crowd. This crowd got excited and put several pieces together to declare that an Office war was on the horizon.

Post 2 of 4, To continue…

POSTED IN: Access, Excel, Google, MS Office, Microsoft, Office Productivity Software, Office Suite, Powerpoint, Word, Writely