With the well talked about added feature of Google spreadsheets, we have another example of a very good innovation team launching a new product that shakes the world.
Ok this isn’t shaking the world. But it is creating possibilities and forcing the likes of Microsoft to evolve. I was reading a comment from someone over on MIPscan that listed all of the other spreadsheets that have gone by the wayside. The one that triggered me was good old Lotus 1-2-3. It was awesome. When Excel came out it wasn’t as strong and it was integrated into a suite and so forth, but Excel won. At that time Microsoft was doing the destructive innovating (don’t slam me if you think that this was stuff Microsoft stole/borrowed/or learned from Xerox).
Is there room for a new player? Maybe not, but the consumers will tell us. And guess what, Google has a lot of consumers. And there are a lot of companies that will like the price tag, the functionality and the built in back-up.
I would love to know what the cost of this new application cost Google. I bet it wasn’t much. DabbleDB was built by a couple of guys in Vancouver and it is pretty good as well (Mark Evans and I talked about it in our CoffeeCAST). It is interesting to watch these heavyweights battle it out. The consumer is the winner in the end.
