Going After The Ballmer

Google presents the economic/technology world with a very interesting question: How does a company benefit by making its key products available for free to consumers? And, does that company benefit more than a company following the traditional model of selling its products for a profit? Consider this latest article from the NYTimes Tech Blog:

Google Goes After Another Microsoft Cash Cow - Bits - Technology - New York Times Blog

Now, most of us know that Google Apps has a way to go before it will really be able to compete with Microsoft on an enterprise level. The tools offered are not quite comprehensive enough.

However, we have seen Google put something out there that - to the average consumer, at least - is adequate. Google Docs is completely adequate for the average consumer, who in most cases would consider the powerful tools offered by Microsoft Word to be overkill. What average consumer really needs to write VBA macros into their Word docs?

So, Google is good for the average user, especially when one considers the price Office. But what about all those enterprise users?

However big Google's plans are, the reality is that there have been free competitors to Microsoft's Office Juggernaut for several years (Don't forget Sun's OpenOffice), and they continue to be suites that ...nobody uses. Oh, I know - you can give me a few token names of companies that have taken the corporate stand against Microsoft and refused to use their products. But on a global scale, no one competitor has been able to unseat Microsoft from their throne yet, even when they give their product away.

What makes Google think they will be able to?