Office vs Online Office : Telephone vs Mobile Phone
Raju Vegesna October 23, 2007 09: 03 am
Many users consider online office applications as a replica of their offline counterparts. While the purpose of these applications is the same, their usage mode is significantly different.
The right analogy here is to compare offline office suites to traditional wired telephones and online office suites to mobile phones. The core function for both the devices is the same, but the mobility adds a new dimension to cell phones. Attaching a camera to your land line doesn’t make sense, but now that the phone is mobile and is available wherever you go, it makes perfect sense. Mobility adds this new dimension. Similarly there are other dimensions (like collaborative editing) which are unique to online applications. You’ll see some interesting use cases like this emerge which are traditionally not possible.
But then, lets be practical. Online office applications do have their limitations and they don’t yet offer whatever their offline counterparts offer today. That doesn’t mean they won’t get there. Its a matter of time. Online office suites are just 2 years old which probably can be compared to early versions of mobile phones. Over the next few years, you’ll see greater improvements. Going forward we might see similarities between adoption of online office suites and mobile phones where some users will solely depend on mobile phones, some users using both and some sticking with their wired line.
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Zoho’s Online vs. Offline Office Comparison…
Take a recent post for example: Office vs Online Office : Telephone vs Mobile Phone. Raju Vegesna makes a great case for the differences between online office applications and offline desktop office programs by comparing them to mobile phones and wired…
As a road warrior, I find Zoho really convenient. The cell phone analogy is good - in the beginning, I remember putting up with poorer voice quality just for the mobility. Over time voice quality really improved.
Finding a good internet connection is not so much a problem lately (except on a plane!). But then cell phones don’t work on a plane either …
[…] read more here […]
I have an AJAX type question about your applications. For instance, when using the spreadsheet does the server run the code that would do calculations and send the results to the browser OR does the server send javascript to the browser and it executes on the client PC? I am guessing that javascript for each function is send from the server to the client machine where it is executed — since if you allow offline work in the future the logic for the spreadsheet would have to be sent to the client machine along with the data so it would be able to run as a javascript application. It this correct?
[…] to learn more about some of the advantages of working online. Here are a couple of sample posts: “Offline vs. Online”. and “Business at the Margins”. a post by Zoho’s founder and […]
[…] to learn more about some of the advantages of working online. Here are a couple of sample posts: “Offline vs. Online”. and “Business at the Margins”. a post by Zoho’s founder and […]
Great job, Zoho.
I just heard of Zoho and came here to learn more. There’s NO ANSWER to the question containing this link: Zoho: Words Processing as Complete as Ms Office | domuspatrum.com
March 5th, 2008 | 12:51 am
It’s on this page: http://blogs.zoho.com/general/office-vs-online-office-telephone-vs-mobile-phone/