“Even if Microsoft were Free…”

WHATEVER

The title of this post is a quote from a NY Times article discussing the introduction of Google Apps. Google Apps is an amalgamation of two previously released applications suites, including Gmail, calendar, instant messaging, Doc & Spreadsheets, and an HTML editor, all available for free over the internet, and easily integrated into a standard web domain to be shared by an office or small company. Provided you can hit the internet, Google supplies the software, the servers, the maintenance, and therefore the people that perform system’s administration – a savings of an estimated $80k on staffing alone and therefore a better value than Microsoft similar offerings “even if Microsoft were Free.”

Granted, considering Google’s egregious license agreement and the fact your stuff sits with someone else, most big business will shy away from the free services – but big business isn’t the fastest growing market segment for business software. Is Microsoft the next Blockbuster? Probably not, they are too big, too diverse, too rich, and have too many talented people to be marginalized entirely. However, the delays and problems with Vista and the next Office – as well as their ho-hum reception – would indicate the more agile Google has fired the first shot across the bow, and may be the first real competition MS has had in years.