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It seems to me that this is a situation similar to the one Dropbox found itself in when starting out - the key obstacle for getting a file hosting service to ta

It seems to me that this is a situation similar to the one Dropbox found itself in when starting out - the key obstacle for getting a file hosting service to take off was universal device compatibility, and they spent a ton of time on it and nailed it. For any startup or other competitors to Office, the one key feature they must get right is document compatibility. I know Microsoft doesn't play fair in that regard, but I'm sure a motivated enough team could crack it. Office is actually decent for being MS software, but a simplified and streamlined web experience, reduced feature bloat, with online collaborative tools, and made available free or cheap could steal a lot of market share.

akbar501 13y ago
> a simplified and streamlined web experience, reduced feature bloat, with online collaborative tools, and made available free or cheap could steal a lot of market share. Microsoft has this solution: https://skydrive.live.com https://skydrive.live.com SkyDrive and the associated Office "lite" apps are free and feature light versions of the Office suite products. For business there is the Office365 apps which are the logical progression. Also, the desktop versions of the Office apps integrate with these cloud based services. For larger companies, there are also options to run in a private cloud and/or behind the firewall.