It looks like it may take longer than expected for anyone to start trying out the Web versions of Microsoft Office. Wait. Here’s another way to say it: It looks like Google (GOOG) and Zoho will have more time to convince Office users to switch to their online suites.
Microsoft had originally said it would launch a “technology preview” of Web-based Office apps before the end of this year, with a beta launch in 2009. Now, it appears that the preview of which the company spoke is defined as about 1,000 Microsoft employees. And that testing won’t be done until sometime in Q1 2009, according to a CNET report.
One of my long-running beefs with Microsoft is the snail’s pace at which it seems to operate sometimes. This is the Internet age. Things change quickly. I know quality products take time to perfect - after all, it took Microsoft something like 6 years to roll out Vista. But this practice of announcing a product and then saying it won’t be available until the next quarter or the next year is getting kind of old.
Apple (AAPL), by contrast, announces a product and then usually follows up with “It’s available today.” Same goes with Google, which usually soft launches something (albeit in beta, usually) and then hammers out a blog post to say it’s up and running. Nothing like instant gratification, right?
For the past couple of months, there’s been a laptop at my house that has no traces of Microsoft Office. It’s always Web connected, so we - me, the wife and kids - have been using Google Docs and Zoho. We’ve barely noticed the difference. We can import .doc files into Google Docs. Likewise, we can save Google documents and spreadsheets in a MS-compatible format and share with others over email. Sure, there’s a couple of features missing here or there - but the companies are known for random feature rollouts so I always kind of figure that some missing tool will appear eventually.
I’m actually anxious to try the Web version of Microsoft Office. But with no release date yet determined, I’ll keep clicking away on Zoho and Google and maybe, by the time Microsoft rolls out their online versions, I’ll still be interested.
Or maybe not.
