Friday, February 23, 2007

Google v. Microsoft

Microsoft Vs. Google: The Office Battle Is Joined (Henry Blodget's analysis and opinion piece in Forbes) :
...No self-respecting information technology manager at a Fortune 500 company is going to suddenly throw out the global standard [MS Office] and bet his or her job on the sideline business of an Internet media company...

...On the other hand, Google's current offerings--Gmail, Docs & Spreadsheets, etc.--bear all the marks of a classic disruptive technology. As Harvard professor Clayton Christensen observed, disruption begins when a dominant market leader has built so so much functionality into its core products that it has begun to over-serve its core customers...

...At the same time, by targeting Microsoft's crown jewels, Google is risking not only failure but its own monopolistic dominance of its core business--search. Selling and servicing technology solutions is a fundamentally different business than selling and providing advertising solutions, and will eventually require the creation of an entirely new sales and service organization.

No company in history has dominated the hearts and minds of both marketers and IT buyers, although several have tried. Even with Google's awesome talents and power, therefore, success is far from guaranteed. Especially because the opponent in question, a sleeping giant that has so thoroughly dominated its industry that not one but two governments were forced to try to stop it, won't likely give up without a fight.

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