Google’s array of business applications, perhaps most notably its Docs & Spreadsheets service, have been quietly evolving since it launched a beta version some months ago. As an experiment, I’ve actually used it to manage text documents consisting of 20+ pages, and for the most part it seems to work very well. Chances are it would suit the majority of basic business tasks quite well.

Even so, I was quite surprised to read this Information Week article which discusses the FAA’s (Federal Aviation Administration) announced moratorium on upgrading to Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7.

However, having extensively used Office 2007 for over a month now, while I think they have made some nice improvements, although the jury is still out regarding whether its making me any more productive than I was when using Office 2003. As matters currently stand, I’d say it does not. Not to mention, jumbling up the interface of one of the world’s most used applications isn’t exactly going to score brownie points among those having far less patience when it comes to technology than your typical computer geek. Given most users simply want to use a text editor offering a modicum of features and doing so in a user-friendly manner, perhaps it shouldn’t be such a surprise after all that organizations will begin exploring low-cost alternatives to these crucial business applications.

In many ways, Microsoft is in a very difficult situation; they’ve created a suite of applications that have basically defined the way office environments run. Their creation has become the benchmark from which all other competing applications are measured. However in doing so, Microsoft’s efforts to constantly reinvent themselves runs the risk of treading too far away from the very paradigms that defined their success in the first place, allowing competitors to conquer marketshare precisely by not innovating.

Read the Information Week article