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Study: 73% of Americans have never heard of Google Docs
We spend a lot o
f time talking about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Zoho, and other online office suites. For the most part they don't have all the features of Microsoft Office, but they attempt to make up for that in convenience (access them from any computer) and price (usually free). But we've always had a suspicion that most computer users have never heard of these web based office suites. And if you believe a recent NPD survey of 600 PC users, we were right.
According to the study, 94 percent of US computer users have never tried a web based productivity suite. More than 20 percent say they've at least heard of Google Docs or other suites, but have still never tried them. And only 0.5 percent of users say they've replaced Microsoft Office with an online office suite.
So while online office suites are perfectly serviceable replacements for Microsoft Office if you don't need advanced formatting options or other fancy features, the simple truth is most people just aren't ready to let go of Microsoft Office. That makes Microsoft's online Office strategy a bit more understandable. We may have slammed the company for failing to offer a standalone word processor, spreadsheet app, or presentation platform online, (Office Live Documents simply provides a way to access documents created on your desktop from the web), but Microsoft isn't worried about the competition from Google, Zoho, ThinkFree, or anyone else at the moment. Not in the short term anyway. Office Live Documents is just a new bonus feature for many users, not an alternative to Google Docs.
f time talking about Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Zoho, and other online office suites. For the most part they don't have all the features of Microsoft Office, but they attempt to make up for that in convenience (access them from any computer) and price (usually free). But we've always had a suspicion that most computer users have never heard of these web based office suites. And if you believe a recent NPD survey of 600 PC users, we were right.According to the study, 94 percent of US computer users have never tried a web based productivity suite. More than 20 percent say they've at least heard of Google Docs or other suites, but have still never tried them. And only 0.5 percent of users say they've replaced Microsoft Office with an online office suite.
So while online office suites are perfectly serviceable replacements for Microsoft Office if you don't need advanced formatting options or other fancy features, the simple truth is most people just aren't ready to let go of Microsoft Office. That makes Microsoft's online Office strategy a bit more understandable. We may have slammed the company for failing to offer a standalone word processor, spreadsheet app, or presentation platform online, (Office Live Documents simply provides a way to access documents created on your desktop from the web), but Microsoft isn't worried about the competition from Google, Zoho, ThinkFree, or anyone else at the moment. Not in the short term anyway. Office Live Documents is just a new bonus feature for many users, not an alternative to Google Docs.
Comments
15
Subscribe to commentsDannyDec 18th 2007 10:42AM
It's mostly just hype right now. Web 2.0 fanatics think that most people will see webapps like they do, as replacements for installed programs. But they're not mature yet, and some are wary of leaving the tried-and-true for the untested new online gimmicks. Plus the fact that you need internet access to use webapps. Not all of us have broadband.
naser.imranDec 21st 2007 10:59PM
I agree with Danny. Web apps haven't quite matured into a thing of broad competance with desktop apps. Also the availability of internet is still pretty much uncertain, especially outside of the US and European countries.
So, good...bad.. MS Office (or any other desktop based Office Suite) would have to do.
ToddDec 17th 2007 6:40PM
Easy enough to fix that. We're just one Super Bowl ad away from inverting that statistic...since the Super Bowl is watched by 73% of all Americans.
InsomnicDec 17th 2007 6:40PM
I think that is a logical set of numbers. Techies often pick up on these things and when regular users aren't involved in the discussions (forums/posts/blogs/etc) the impression of how much a new technology has been accepted ends up being much lower than initial impressions.
Same is true for services considered established by most techies like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit/Digg, RSS, etc - but many non-techies still haven't even heard of them.
It's something I, as a geek by profession, try to keep in mind when talking to the non-geeks.
JimDec 18th 2007 4:37PM
I've got zero reason to not use MS Office. Give me one compelling reason to use a productivity apps that have been created by an advertising company? (Google) Thanks but no thanks.
PeterDec 18th 2007 4:38PM
$$$ As long as you are happy paying Microsoft for something you can get for free, by all means continue using Word.
Brian GordonDec 19th 2007 2:01PM
And Jim - did you know that Microsoft recently decided to reposition as an advertising company?
BillyGDec 21st 2007 8:02AM
The number 1 feature for me is the collaboration aspect. If you have a group of people working on a single document nothing beats it. MS Word is still stuck in the pre-internet era.
RXDec 21st 2007 8:03AM
The number 1 feature for me is the collaboration aspect. If you have a group of people working on a single document nothing beats it. MS Word is still stuck in the pre-internet era.
JamesDec 18th 2007 4:43PM
I'm astounded the number that *have* heard of it is anywhere near that high. I haven't seen any sort of advertising push for it, and it's still a "labs" product (right?), and even my wife, who uses Gmail every day and is relatively technical, didn't know about it till I told her. I would have figured that the 73% figure would be closer to 95% or more!
Hitesh SawlaniDec 18th 2007 11:40PM
Everyone I've asked in my university (18-24 year olds) have never heard of it, infact, they believe google only does a search engine and email.
They don't know what RSS is. They don't understand what a "wiki" is (they think its a shorthand way of saying wikipedia). They have never heard of the term "Web 2.0" !
They have heard of the term "blog" but can't identify one when they see one.
I have still to find a random student who knows what flickr is. I'm chairman of the photography society, from our 50 members only about 6 knew what flickr was.
This was meant to be the IT generation. Its just many people using stuff they barely understand (they still call a browser "internet")
What kind of people have I asked? Engineers and Computing students.
We have a long long way to go.
MattDec 19th 2007 7:13PM
this data cannot be even close to trusted until a more detailed description of the NPD survey is revealed. To confirm - or as a statistician we say - "fail to reject" - your null hypothesis, you must be working with a fair sample representation of the population - in this case All Americans. I'm not sure 600 PC owners represent "All Americans" or "U.S. Consumers".
In my professional opinion - this survey does not represent the population it claims to be studying.
LameDec 19th 2007 4:09PM
Wow, what a fail of a study. I wasn't aware a sample size of 600 could account for all PC Users in America. FAIL.
sonDec 19th 2007 9:24PM
The reason most people will not use this they fear the lack of privacy. When I use Word on my computer it tries to 'phone home' but Zone alarm prevents Microsoft from spying on me. (I wonder if I would be allowed to spy on Microsoft?)
So, most informed people will shy away from these types of offerings.
MiamiDudeDec 23rd 2007 3:51PM
I can well understand why users would shy away. First, the file limitations at Google are absurd. Secondly, Google does not support pdf. And Zoho? They convert the document, ignoring all original pdf formatting and when printing, it defaults to the browser format instead of the original file parameters. Very poor standards for any business user who wishes to enjoy wide based file sharing amongst staff or, more critically, customers and clients.