And Suddenly There Were Three . . .

This article from Michael Endler at Information Week on Apple's move to make iWork free on iOS devices got me thinking, and my conclusion is that, suddenly and out of the blue, we might have a new office productivity application battle on our hands.

Years ago Microsoft Office crushed alternatives like Lotus and WordPerfect as the ubiquitous office application suite. Now, suddenly, we've got Google with its Drive (nee Docs) and Apple with iWorks stepping up to potentially give the old gray mare a run for it's money.

My data points are more anecdotal and observational than empirical at this point. Here are just two:

• I'm seeing more and more small businesses--design firms, publications, even health insurance co-ops--using Google Docs to share and collaborate.
• Every time I visit a corporate setting, more an more people are showing up in meetings with iPads, many complete with keyboards to serve as a full mobile computer. In fact, one client I am currently working with recently did away with laptops and issued company-owned iPads (with aftermarket keyboards and cases) to anyone needing mobile computing. And, everyone said that it took a few days of a learning curve but they have no desire to go back to their old slow, clunky (Windows OS) laptops.

I've not done much personally with the iWorks apart from using the Keynote presentation suite (which is pretty slick), but I've consistently been impressed with the progress that Google Docs/Drive has made with each passing year. And the sticker price (free) is a pretty compelling proposition.

So, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a new war for enterprise market share crank up over the course of the next year or two as desktop PCs go the way of the buffalo and we all start shaking out what the productivity devices and productivity software suites look like.