Big winner with Office for iPad and Android delay: Google

Summary: Microsoft is reportedly delaying a launch of Office for the iPad and Android to late next year. That may be too late with Google poised to take Office customers.

Microsoft Office has long been expected on the iPad and Android tablets, even though the company in Redmond, Washington, has never confirmed that it's coming. But those two mobile markets are too large to ignore, and analysts have predicted that Microsoft is losing billions of dollars each year without a version of Office for them. Now comes word that this new version of Office is coming, but won't appear for over a year. That very well may be too late for the bunch in Redmond.

Quickoffice
(Image: Google)

My colleague Zack Whittaker believes Google Docs will take some of these customers away, but that's not the biggest threat to Microsoft. The longer Microsoft neglects to release the iOS and Android versions of Office, a greater number of customers owning iPads and other tablets will discover competing Office-compatible apps for those platforms. Having used many of these suites for years, it is clear they are robust enough to fill the need for Office for many owners.

It hasn't been stated but don't be surprised when Google releases the latest version of Quickoffice for the iPad, Android tablets, and all chromebooks to compete directly with Microsoft Office.

There is an even bigger threat to Microsoft in the mobile Office market that is already sneaking in to steal customers lacking real Office. That threat is Google, and not with Google Docs, as Whittaker believes. No, the real threat that Google will throw at Microsoft is Quickoffice.

Quickoffice has been a top Office-compatible suite on both Android and iOS for years, a viable alternative to Office. It is so good that Google bought the company (and thus the product) last year.

Google hasn't been sitting on Quickoffice, either. It has already produced new versions of the office suite for the iPad and Android that are free for paid Google Apps customers. Google has stated that it will integrate Quickoffice into the premium Chromebook Pixel laptop. In other words, the company is positioning Quickoffice as a full-featured business alternative for Microsoft Office on three different platforms.

The free version of Quickoffice released by Google is not the only one. Quickoffice Pro, the latest paid version, is available for both iOS and Android for $19.99 each.

It hasn't been stated, but don't be surprised when Google releases a new version of Quickoffice for the iPad, Android tablets, and all chromebooks. This version may not be free, but it's almost a given that it will be cheaper than Microsoft will price Office to remain profitable. This will put a quality office suite that competes with (and is compatible with files produced by) Microsoft Office on the huge iPad and Android markets. It won't be as complete an office suite as that from Microsoft, but it will be good enough for a large portion of that market.

This delay of getting Office to competing mobile platforms will end up biting Microsoft where it hurts. The pit bull (Google) doing the biting has executed a master plan with Quickoffice, and it will be significant. It will change the street definition of Scroogled when Google hits Microsoft's profitable Office business.

Related stories

Topics: Mobility, Android, Google, iPad, Microsoft

James Kendrick has been using mobile devices since they weighed 30 pounds, and has been sharing his insights on mobile technology for almost that long.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily email newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Give yourself a unified view of your global IT systems' performance, availability and capacity across all server platforms, network devices, applications and IT business services with up.time. Download your free 30-day trial now. (Available in the US, Canada, UK, and Australia only.)

Web analytics solutions have become an indispensable tool for e-commerce, but they typically only provide partial visibility into the actual customer experience. Download this paper to see how you can determine what's happening on your web site, and why it's happening.

In this on-demand webcast, Phillip Stasko, IT Manager for Apex Companies, describes how Viewfinity's Privilege Management product enabled him to effectively remove administrator rights from all employees without impeding user productivity.

View the original article here

How to: Using Google Cloud Print for working with PDFs

(Image: Google)

When Google introduced its Cloud Print service, it was touted as a good way to print from the Chrome browser and by definition, the Chrome OS, to any printer that is connected to the service. These printers include a handful of Cloud Print-Ready units and old-school models physically connected to a computer on the same network as the Chrome device. In reality, Cloud Print is a powerful tool that can be used to capture almost any content for access from virtually any remote device.

The first step is to link Cloud Print to your Google account. This can be done from any Chrome browser via the advanced settings. Once the account is linked to Cloud Print, printers can be added to Cloud Print, which enables remote printing from any Android device or installation of the Chrome browser.

Cloud Print setup on a Mac. (Image: Screenshot by James Kendrick)

The ability to print remotely is useful, but it only scratches the surface of what can be done with Cloud Print. As evidenced in the Print dialog in Chrome, documents can also be printed to a FedEx/Kinko's account. This opens up the ability to print complex work documents for business purposes. You can print directly to the Kinko's outlet of choice right from Chrome.

(Image: Screenshot by James Kendrick)

There is another method of using Cloud Print that is even more useful for BYOD workers. Once Cloud Print has been enabled, all user devices with the Chrome browser installed show up as printers in the Cloud Print settings. This includes all Android devices (phones and tablets), iPads, and iPhones. Any listed device can be selected as a "printer". Printing content to one of these non-printer devices triggers Cloud Print to convert the document to a PDF file that is pushed to the selected device.

Printed to Note II smartphone. (Image: Screenshot by James Kendrick)

This is a fast and simple way to get anything to a mobile device for access at any time. It's useful for capturing web content or other information. There are apps that capture information for access later, but this is particulary useful for capturing rich content that needs to be saved exactly as it appears in the browser.

Once content has been printed to a remote device, it is accessed through any app on that device that handles PDF files. These PDF files are standard format and can be manipulated just like any other PDF.

In addition to printing content to specific remote devices for saving as PDF, the Chrome print dialog has another "print" outlet that is very powerful. The Save to Google Drive option shows up in the list of printers and works as expected. Print content is converted to PDF as described above, and pushed to the user's Google Drive. This makes such content instantly available to any devices running Google Drive, and it is cross-platform, so that means virtually any device.

Google Cloud Print makes it easy to print to printers using old-fashioned paper, but it really shines when used as a capture tool for digital information. Web pages and other content accessible via the Chrome browser can be saved in PDF looking exactly as they do on the web. This capture can be pushed to any mobile device running Chrome, and even to the Google Drive cloud storage. It is thus a powerful tool for those using the Chrome browser, and especially for Chromebook users. This could make the Chromebook a useful device for those embracing BYOD.

Related stories

View the original article here