INNOBLOG

Google and Sun Microsystems announced today that Google will offer Suns StarOffice suite of powerful productivity software for free online, in conjunction with its expanding set of free, "light versions of doc and spreadsheet programs (we here at the Innoblog have been tracking the disruptive development of Google Office; as recently as yesterday my colleague Alex Slawsby posted this exposition on the trend). This is Googles latest move upmarket as it seeks to offer free "good enough online software that it can uniquely monetize via its world-class advertising engine and customer base, and yields perhaps the most interesting outcome of the partnership between the companies that Innosight wrote about in Strategy & Innovation two years ago. The next question is whether or not Google will be able to seamlessly integrate the best of Suns office suite into its nascent docs and spreadsheets program, and the watch-out we raised in 2005 stands will the two companies be able to structure their venture appropriately, or will they succumb to the common problem of death by committee in which each company seeks to impose its own rules, regulations and culture onto a venture until the end result fails to please anyone? The fact that Google has begun to build a channel for free software delivery via its docs and spreadsheets programs indicates that this relationship may be more about Sun licensing its programs to Google indeed Google is paying Sun for access to StarOffice in which case organizational issues could be obviated so long as Sun gives Google permission to control the integration of StarOffice into its offering. But if the relationship demands more tightly coordinated activity between the two companies, watch closely to see how the venture is structured.