The huge success of web apps have made me think about the continued use for Microsoft’s Office suite. Back-in-the-day Office was really the only game in town.  Today Google’s Apps service had taken the lead in the Web2.0 surge.

Apps provide great functionality and work group solutions for free.  Many users will never push Excel to its limits, Google Apps which includes a powerful spreadsheet app is definitely good enough for many of us on a day-to-day basis.

Robert Scoble announced:

I’ve been watching my usage. In two months I’ve only used Outlook out of the entire Office Suite. Everything else? Moved onto online services.”
- 09:06 AM April 30, 2008 from web

Reflecting upon my own use of applications online from various vendors including my beta testing of SlideRocket, I would have to agree that the time to move away from Microsoft’s Office to Google Apps appears to make more sense than ever before…

As I type this on my laptop, suggestion I’m set for wireless access to data at the office, at home and on the road.  While Scoble may be predicting cloud computing solutions has really arrived because the applications available today are more than powerful enough for a majority of citizens. For those who see their roles within organizations as advanced users of MS Word and Excel, then Microsoft’s Office suite is still a perfect fit for this slowly, smaller user base.   But at some point Microsoft will be rolling out Office in the Cloud.

Tags: Cloud Computing, Robert Scoble, Naked Conversations, community, Google Apps, Microsoft Office, globalization, trends