We (and many others) have been tracking Googles steadily expanding low-end disruptive challenge to Microsoft Office. A year ago Google acquired online document server Writely, then it launched an online spreadsheet app, and then combined the two into a free software bundle that lacked many of the advanced features of Word and Excel, but enabled universal access, online collaboration, free storage, platform independence, and automatic version control. Now, unsurprisingly, comes word that Google is readying low-end, online, collaborative presentation softwareputting PowerPoint in the cross-hairs.
Microsoft, clearly, faces an Innovator's Dilemma. What can it do to respond? Has anyone here used the new collaboration tools embedded into Office 2007? Are they good enough to obviate some of the advantages of Google Apps? Or are they clunky, complex, slow...?
