Google is working on an app store for business applications that tie into the web services of Google Apps. This store for conventional software is set to open in March.
The applications on offer are developed by third parties and provide additional capabilities. These include enhanced security or import options for email and calendar software. An example is a migration tool from Microsoft SharePoint to Google Sites, developed by a Google Apps Enterprise Partner.
Purchase online
The Wall Street Journal now reports that Google will present those external applications in one place, complete with purchase options. That app store would be a major overhaul of the relatively little-known Solutions Marketplace that Google already offers.
That site currently contains descriptions and reviews, but links out to software makers’ own sites for purchases. There, the software is usually available for online purchase. Collecting payments via the Marketplace is currently optional, using a self-created order button that connects to Google’s own Checkout payment system. According to The Wall Street Journal’s sources, the forthcoming app store will offer direct purchasing.
This move is intended not only to encourage the use of Google’s online services. The internet giant will also take a share of the revenue from purchased applications, following examples such as Apple’s iTunes App Store and Salesforce.com’s AppExchange. Google declined to comment specifically on this news. The Journal adds that the company says it “always works with partners to provide more solutions to businesses.”
Software plus services
Microsoft says that with this step Google is following the example of the Windows producer. Since 2007, Microsoft has maintained that not software as a service (SaaS), but “software plus services” is the future. Microsoft’s “software+services” strategy aims to link conventional applications, such as Office and Exchange, to online services, such as Office Web Apps and hosted Exchange.
Google, however, believes in SaaS and wants to provide as many computing functions in the cloud as possible, and move functions there as well. CEO Eric Schmidt stated in 2007 that 90 percent of all PC activities can be done in the browser. Microsoft executive Tim O’Brien tells tech news site The Register that several Google managers and engineers are now saying the way forward is to connect cloud services to local applications.