Google Docs vs. Microsoft Office: An International Perspective

Google, in a challenge to Microsoft, has recently released its web-based office suite, Google Docs, and is offering it for free. Developing countries stand to benefit from the competition. In the same way that cell phones have solved the problem of building costly wide area network line infrastructure for customers in developing countries, these same customers will employ wireless Internet networks and free Internet applications to their advantage.

Because Google Docs is web-based, users can collaborate on a document from their desks world-wide, save the document on the web, and access it from anywhere the Internet is available. They can save time because the need for emailing back and forth is eliminated. Google Docs accepts most common file formats, including DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, RTF, CSV, and PPT; which means that it accepts Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents, among others. It offers all the basics for creating documents, including bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts and more.

Non-profits and missionary workers are expected to quickly take advantage of this new Internet tool. For example, Summer Institute of Linguistics International (SILI) has Linguists all over Africa translating the Bible into several different languages. Their collaborators in Africa cannot afford Microsoft Office license fees, but the free Google Docs application makes it possible to collaborate and make full use of the Internet. This is also a great tool for journalists and other business travelers who need to collaborate on documents in different regions, languages or time zones. At this writing, Google Docs supports the following languages: Danish, Czech, Finnish, Hungarian, Indonesian, Norwegian, Swedish, Thai, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

According to its Terms and Conditions, Google Docs expects to be supported by advertising revenues and may display ads and promotions targeted to the content of information stored on its servers. It is expected that Google Docs’ largest growth, development and revenues will be seen within the next couple of years. Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced its competitor to Google Docs: Microsoft Office Live Workspace. Rather than offer a web-based version of all of its office products, Office Live Workspace will be an extension of Microsoft’s leading desktop applications for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software, and will continue its licensing fees approach to profits.

History has seen the demise of other, free or less expensive word processing applications, such as Word Perfect. Microsoft has a history of aggressively competing in price and licensing terms to discourage software pirating and to expand their market share. An example of such efforts is the Unlimited Potential $3 dollar initiative.

As a result, Microsoft still dominates the market. Microsoft is also promoting a series of new technologies under its virtualization umbrella to address some of the issues created by the current need for a desktop system to run its office suite. Soft Grid is an example of this, wherein applications are de-coupled from operating systems to make them mobile and stateless.

Web-based applications not only appear to represent the future; at some level they also solve the problem of software piracy. To be viable, Google Docs must win international market share. According to eBay CEO Meg Whitman, revenues from international markets are now larger than domestic revenues.

In dealing with emerging international markets, it is important to realize that price and accessibility and brand recognition are not the only driving forces. Companies must also contend with the ‘We have always done it this way and we will make up our own mind’ attitude. The developing country’s consumer response to a more personal touch and a trust in the company can lead to market domination.

Google's advantage is that it is trusted by the consumer, and is able to launchttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifh functional products in a timely manner. In order for Google Docs to win market share and become the universal application, they must expand their marketing quickly and effectively across the globe. At present, the Google search engine leads in the USA and Japan, but market share in Russia still goes to Yandex; in South Korea, Naver leads; and in China, Baidu commands, so Google cannot rely on the leverage of its search engine to promote the suite internationally. However, effective marketing of Google Docs can lead to the search engine's domination of the markets where they lag behind. If that happens, Google Docs will be ready to dominate.

It should be interesting to keep an eye on how this competition between Microsoft and Google develops internationally.

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