Jostling for places on the number grid
I have been observing, examining and using web based spreadsheets since March. I did so on the back of something we were working on here at Folknology. Eight months on and the field has changed considerably, the technology is now maturing to the level that we can pursue our original project aims.
It is probably worth reviewing the picture from then to now. The players we have observed in the field are :
- NumSum - Originally TrimSpreadsheet written by Steve Yen of TrimPath
- IRows - One of the earliest apart from maybe TrimPaths work.
- Numbler - Python backend written by Carl Shimer
- WikiCalc - Dan Brickilin's spreadsheet re-birth
- EditGrid - Opensource Gnumeric backend engine
- Zoho Sheet - Part of their package offering
- JotSpot - Spreadsheet component just one of their base wiki objects
It is interesting in the wake of recent news to see where we have moved to from these original startups/plays. There seems to be several stories developing around the online spreadsheet meme:
The SocialText Enterprise story
WikiCalc -> is being integrated into SocialText
The Google consumer stopry
JotSpot -> Aquired by Google, is being integrated into GoogleApps or the other way around ;)
IRows -> Is being discontinued , but the founders and talent are moving to Google
The Zoho SMB Online Office story
Zoho Sheet -> Is continuing development and is amassing a significant feature set
The unknown but technically fascinating story
NumSum -> No real news since March when they boasted the first web spreadsheet based Offline feature!!
The open source spreadsheet story
Numbler -> They have open sourced their backend on Google code, they also have an REST based API
The community, channel and business tool story
EditGrid -> Their future is being hinted at, but they are to a degree following their users and community instincts. In fact I think they will be the ones taking a community and even a channel building like approach. They are also working actively with a number of businesses and SAAS providers to develop solutions infrastructure.
So interestingly only 3 of the original 7 players are sticking with the pure web based spreadsheet play, The others are integrating into office, enterprise or collaborative suite like platforms.
Of the 3 pure spreadsheet plays NumSum is currently off the Radar (Steve let me know whats happening if you are reading this), Numbler seems to be making an open source play and EditGrid is making serious community and channel moves. It should also be noted that EditGrid is also the only one out of the 7 starters actually emerging from Beta before the end of this year (as far as I know). There is also a chance that EditGrid could fully open source it's backend although thats is not certain at this point in time, despite whispers of such a possibility.
Now I don't know about you lot out there but this, to me, smacks of a great story unravelling as we speak, the likes of TechCrunch haven't jumped on this more conclusively I don't know why. To me this is shaping up to be one of the most important battles of the new software as a service era. It is clear that Google has started it's pitch (although ambiguous of course), Yahoo don't seem to be playing, likewise Amazon, Ebay or the others. although if any of them wanted to they could approach any of the 3 remaining players. So what about Microsoft, the current spreadsheet king ? Well to me it is unlikely that they will purchase any of the 3 as they have a 'not invented here' attitude particularly around what they consider their core market - Office. Thus they are likely to role out their own offering belatedly and it is likely to be crippled so as not to disturb their cash cow in the new office suites being rolled out through 2007.
Therefore I think there is a big opportunity for the web equivalent of a spreadsheet, particularly in business rather than consumer (I think Google will take that market). Notice how I refer to it as 'the web equivalent of a spreadsheet' rather than just web spreadsheet. What I mean by that is it fulfills on the web what a spreadsheet fulfilled inside the office, and preferably with the recognisable grid user interface that we have all grown to love. But it shouldn't be just a web based clone of what went before, the kind of uses these tools have seen in the office service have been varied, but often form the financial glue between the cracks in the M.I.S technology of businesses. I would therefore expect them to fulfill both the existing niche and the emerging one of filling the cracks in SAAS. This could be the agile new web tool for all businesses, and I expect that is what is developing here, I also think only one of the 3 has seen this clearly, see if you can guess which one..
One thing is for sure, this story has just begun and is one that we will be observing closely over the next few months and years. Let us know what you think is going to happen.
Technorati Tags: Business2.0, EditGrid, Enterprise2.0, financials, iRows, JotSpot, Microsoft, Numbler, NumSum, Office2.0, OpenSource, Spreadsheet, WikiCalc
