Google Docs gains offline access, now a bigger threat to Microsoft

02 04 2008

Google Docs gains offline access, now a bigger threat to Microsoft

Posted by: in Products and Services

Filed under: Products and services, Competitive strategy, Google (GOOG)

Google Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) existing Google Docs web-based productivity product just became quite a bit smarter. Like it or not, that product just became a front-and-center competitor to Microsoft Corp.’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Office software by becoming available to use without an world wide web connection.

Sounds like a minor event, but Microsoft’s Office productivity software suite brings in billions of dollars in revenue per quarter. It’s one of the company’s most lucrative software packages, and although there have been freely available alternatives for quite some time, Microsoft Office still reigns supreme for word processing and spreadsheets. One of Google’s big problems with most of its products centers around offline access. Customers need to have an active internet connection to work with virtually all of its web-based products.

Will Google’s word processing and spreadsheet programs start taking a bigger bite out of Microsoft’s Office by offering workable access without an internet connection? For some customers, yes. Tyler Dikman with Cooltronics says this move “gives Google a more massive pool of users to go after with more potential to increase their market share. And it sends a wake up call to Microsoft that Google Docs isn’t some experiment. This is something Google is investing a lot of time and money to make work.”

This might seem like a small step from Google Docs, but it’s aimed squarely at Microsoft. Whether Google can make inroads into the office software productivity market remains to be seen. However, its efforts just took a massive leap.