Microsoft Office is still by far the dominant player when it comes to desktop productivity applications. But Google is pushing hard to give the software king a run for its money by offering its cloud-based Google Apps suite as a worthy alternative. Already, relative newcomer Google said it has two million business customers for Google Apps and 25 million users. As CIO Update reports, the hot-selling iPad has given Google an unlikely ally as it pitches CIOs and IT departments on the benefits of cloud computing in general and its app suite and online marketplace in particular.
SAN FRANCISCO — Apple’s betting big that the iPad will be the next great “must have” consumer device. So far, that bet’s looking pretty good as Apple’s (NASDAQ: AAPL) selling about as many iPads as it can make. But the tablet PC is finding a home in businesses too, with what one Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) executive thinks is an unexpected, though welcome, benefit.
“Every CIO I meet is carrying an iPad these days,” David Girouard, president of Google’s Enterprise division, told members of the press at the company’s offices here. Girouard said the iPad is “the ultimate statement of the consumerization of IT to date.”
