Google Inc, the Internet search giant, unveiled yesterday a package of communications and productivity software aimed at businesses and customers who overwhelmingly rely on Microsoft products for those functions.
The package, called Google Apps, combines two sets of previously available software bundles.
One includes programs used for e-mail, instant messaging, calendars and Web page creation.
The other, called Docs and Spreadsheets, includes programs used to read and edit documents created with Microsoft Word and Excel, the mainstays of Microsoft Office, an US$11 billion annual franchise.
Internet-based
Unlike Microsoft's products, which reside on PCs and corporate networks, Google's will be delivered as services accessible over the Internet, with Google storing the data.
This will allow businesses to offload some of the cost of managing computers and productivity software.
For corporate technology staffs, "we think that will be a very refreshing change," said Dave Girouard, Google's vice president and general manager for enterprise.
The e-mail and messaging package, which is based on products like Gmail, Google's e-mail service, has been available in a free trial since August and is supported by advertising.
It has been used by thousands of businesses, educational institutions and other organizations, Google said.
Free of charge
Google will continue to provide the extended bundle of software free to businesses and educational institutions.
But it will also offer businesses additional e-mail storage and customer support for an annual fee of US$50 a user.
By comparison, businesses pay on average about US$225 a person annually for Office and Exchange, the Microsoft server software typically used for corporate e-mail systems, in addition to the costs of in-house management, customer support and hardware, according to the market research firm Gartner.
Google said initial customers of Google Apps would include a unit of Procter & Gamble Co and SalesForce.com, a pioneer in the business of delivering software as an Internet service.
'Phasing out'
"We are in the process of phasing out Microsoft Office and Exchange from our company," said Marc Benioff, the chief executive of SalesForce.com and a frequent Microsoft critic.
While most analysts say that businesses will increasingly use software delivered over the Internet and supported by advertising -- a formula that Google has mastered -- they are split over the threat that Google's offering represents to Microsoft in the near term.
"I think Microsoft should be very concerned about this," said Rebecca Wettemann, vice president of Nucleus Research.
Wettemann noted that a business may spend about US$80,000 on a systems administrator to manage e-mail and desktop office software.
For the same amount of money, Google Apps allows a business to support 1,600 users, she said. Simply in terms of staffing, "this may be a better proposition even if Microsoft were free," Wettemann said.
Mark Anderson, an analyst at Strategic News Service, a technology consulting firm, said Microsoft should worry about Google's inroads into one of its core businesses but would not see an immediate impact.
"These things take years to happen," Anderson said. "Google will have to prove itself in terms of security and in terms of quality."
'Not replacements'
Girouard said his company's products were not replacements for Excel or Word, which he admits are more powerful.
But he added that for smaller businesses and for certain groups of employees within larger companies, Google Apps could be a substitute for Microsoft's products.
Microsoft has taken steps to embrace the trend toward Internet services with products like Office Live, a package of functions to help small businesses set up Web sites.
"We have a bunch of hosted services that we offer to our customers," said Chris Capossela, vice president for Office at Microsoft. "Our belief is that the future of computing is a combination of software and services."
Capossela said he welcomed the competition. But he said he expected that many customers would continue to want to have their data stored in-house because of security, legal and compliance reasons.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”