Just today in a class we were watching a video on Bill Gates & Microsoft, up until his exit in 2008. As we all know, Microsoft do windows (operating system) & office (software) very well. Google do search & everything internety very well… earlier today Google broke enemy lines and now has an add on for microsoft office which auto syncs & backs up your files to google docs…
It’s a very low blow by Google, but a very clever one too. A case of ‘check mate’ as far as Google are concerned. They have microsoft cornered and it seems almost inevitable that in the not too distant future, we’ll all be using google docs and not microsoft office. 10 years ago, that was unthinkable.
This add on came about thanks to one of Google’s acquisitions called ‘DocVerse’ which was originally founded by ex microsoft employees and sold in March 2010 for $25m. Of course now we know why…
And that’s what Google do… they just buy up anything which looks good or can compliment their existing stuff. And why not? They can afford to. It works. In 2010 alone they’ve acquired 24 different tech companies. That’s how it rolls in Google.
Perhaps that’s where Microsoft went wrong… they didn’t swallow up enough cool technology to stay ‘cool’. Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see how long office can keep going. These days office isn’t free which makes it an easy thing to cut for businesses. Why use office when you have google docs or open office for free? Good question. One which not many people would have an answer to.
This is only a very small dent in Microsoft’s armour but with ChromeOS on the way, Google just keep chipping away at them. Browsers, Mobile OS, Search… they’re coming at least 2nd best in those 3 key areas and Microsoft know more than anyone 2nd best isn’t good enough, that’s not where the cash is.
What’s the bets on Google announcing a games console within the next 5 years? :mrevil: