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Through internal development – and a variety of acquisitions – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) has patched together an interesting suite of productivity applications. Now, of course, the company is moving towards monetization.
The suite includes Gmail, Calendar, Talk, Start Page (to create web sites), and Docs & Spreadsheets.
No doubt, this was widely anticipated, but Google has a lot of savvy in building suspense – so as to maximize PR value.
As for its latest offering, the focus is primarily for business users and the pricing is $50/user on an annual basis. This is actually fairly cheap. Keep in mind that salesforce.com, Inc. (NYSE: CRM) averages about $68/user on a monthly basis, albeit for a more robust system.
I had a chance to interview Frank Zamani, who is the founder and CEO of Caspio. His company provides on-demand databases. Think of it like an internet version of Microsoft Corp.'s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Access, allowing for the creation of rich web applications.
According to him:
"Google's move is smart. While their previous Google Apps was a joke, offering business apps as hosted service is where we believe the industry is going. It's amazing to see how Microsoft is stuck in its old mentality and is not willing to reinvent itself. As internet access becomes ubiquitous there remains very little argument to keep applications locked on your own PC.
"The price is low enough for the user who can put up with the current shortcomings of a hosted productivity suite. For most users even losing an hour of productivity due to lack of internet access, is enough to make this offering 'unaffordable.'"
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including the Complete M&A Handbook and the EDGAR-Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-27-2007 @ 3:15PM
Paul said...
Wow. Is everyone this clueless? This will never happen. I don't know what "industry" is referred to here but it's none that exist in the real world.
To prove my point, walk on down to the CFO's office and tell him or her that you want to use Google's Spreadsheets for your budgets so that you can get to them from anywhere.
Tell me when he or she stops laughing. I'll wait a couple of days.