When comparing online office applications such as Google Docs or Zoho with the desktop standard Microsoft Office (sorry, Open Office folks: I know you’re out there, but Microsoft still owns the market), Microsoft advocates usually point to the feature disparity between online and desktop applications. Sure, the online applications are great for light use, the comparison goes, but the desktop applications have so many more features that no serious user could possibly be happy working in the browser. You may not use more than 10% of the features in Microsoft Office, but if part of that 10% isn’t implemented in Google Docs, you won’t switch.
But there’s another factor involved in the comparison that often gets overlooked, even by advocates of the online office suites. Even if you agree that feature counts are a deciding point, and grant that the online office suites are far behind in sheer number of features, they’re ahead in an area that is psychologically quite powerful: perceived speed of development.To see what I mean, look at two lists:
Features shipped by Google Docs in March and April:
- Speaker notes for presentations
- Embedded YouTube videos in presentations
- Offline usage for documents
- Save as PowerPoint for presentations
- Support for 8 additional languages
- New toolbars and menus
- Embedded Google Gadgets
Features shipped by Microsoft Office in March and April:
Which company looks like it’s innovating faster? Which one has the appearance of being more responsive to user needs? Which one is giving you constant evidence that it’s shipping new features, as opposed to talking about new features for the future?
In the desktop world, Microsoft rolls out huge new versions once every two or three years, complete with multimillion dollar launch events, full-press marketing, and giant lists of new features. But in between, there’s that steady drumbeat of new stuff from the online competition. Every time Google or Zoho ship even a new tiny feature, they get press coverage. Every time, there’s another opportunity for people to think about whether they want to switch to a fast-moving free alternative. Every time, there’s renewed hope that development happening on internet time will deliver the features you need soon.
This easily-visible continuous innovation gives the online application suites a momentum that, coupled with the near-zero cost of entry and the benefits of near-universal access, should enable them to continue stealing customers away from the desktop. Every new feature makes the online alternatives “good enough” for a new class of users – but, more importantly, it gives hope to all other would-be switchers.
Are you already using an online office suite for all or part of your web work? If not, what are you waiting for?
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