Microsoft isn’t worried about Google stealing its Office customers

Eric Abent, Dec 27th 2012

Yesterday, we heard that Google is planning to steal away a significant amount of Microsoft Office’s consumer base. Those aspirations likely won’t come as much of a surprise, as we’ve seen Google attempting to grow its influence in the business space for a while, but apparently the big G isn’t yet at a point where Microsoft is worried. Despite the fact that Google said it’s going to try to take 90% of the Office customers who “don’t need to have the most advanced features of Office,” Microsoft’s general manager of business Julia White doesn’t view Google as much of a threat.

According to her, Google “has not yet shown they are truly serious,” in the business space, as most of its money still comes from advertising. That much is true: The New York Times spoke to an unnamed former Google executive who said that Google Apps accounted for $1 billion of the whopping $37.9 billion Google brought in during 2011. Microsoft’s business division pulled in $24 billion in fiscal 2012, making it the company’s most successful division.

So, Google has a lot of catching up to do, but it’s starting to make some serious progress. Google charges less for Apps than Microsoft does for its premium suite of Office programs, so Google is seeing more people who want to save a bit of cash give its business solutions a spin. Though White told The New York Times that Office 365 is primed to become Microsoft’s “fastest-growing business,” she didn’t get into raw numbers.

There are perks to going for Google over Microsoft, but the Office name has long been one considered essential for business. It’s going to be hard for Google to break through that, but you can bet it’s going to try and it’s more than willing to invest heavily to pull customers away from Office. 2013 should be an interesting year in the battle for business domination, so stay tuned.

{jcomments on}