Google and Sun announced a partenership which will see Google toolbar bundled together with Java. That's a strange (at least for me) bundle to download, but many are speculating that what they really want to do is to integrate somehow OpenOffice.org into the services offered by Google. This will be, suposely, a big competition chanlange to Microsoft, and many (see for example here) want to see the "good guy" (Google) fighting the "bad guy". I guess they will "fight" eventually, but not as good versus evil (although Google tries to picture itself as being on the good side of the force, see their slogan "don't do evil"), but just as two companies looking for revenues and profits.
I have to admit that even myself look sometimes at Google as being "on the good side of the force" :)
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While the announcement created much speculation (including a 16% rise in SUNW shares) I think what we are seeing is old friends – several key Google Executives are former Sun Microsystems folks seeing a window of opportunity.
Until recently Office had too many features to compete or keep up with. IBM lost with their own office suite - even though they offered the software for free in a bid for market share.
Since office 2000 edition there is simply not much f room for further innovation. Most users don’t know how to use mot of the current functionality. Businesses are having a difficult time justifying upgrading – as there is no additional productivity gain to be had for the investment. That leaves MS Office stagnate awaiting 64 bit operating system to compel upgrades.
MS office represents approximately 30% of Microsoft’s revenue but more interestingly it represents 70% of their profitability – making the office suite their number one cash cow. With greater than 90% market share and a mature product that can not be enhanced to any significant degree – I believe Sun and Google have identified a unique opportunity to sneak into the market with a net-centric office product that is always upgraded. Once they have some market share – they will offer the Premium version focused on business users. StarOffice currently sells a “premium version”.
It seems that while much more slowly that Larry Ellison would have like – net centric computing is certainly our next technologic evolution.
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