Is Google Office really an enigma?

No debate according to Google, itself, however: Google vs. Microsoft Office? Not yet!

The Google Apps Premier day of reckoning, April 30, has come and gone; That was the day Google was set to turn on the payment required switch to its Google Apps Premiere, to end the "free trial" it pitched upon the upgrade release in February aimed at spurring a quick uptake.

Google Apps is still a freebie, however, as least until the end of the month.

Exasperation expressed at the Google Apps Premier Edition/Education Edition Google Discussion Group Thread "Google Apps Far From Ready" suggests some of the reasons for Google's decision to hold off on seeing if users will buy Google Apps, literally. 

I shared ZDNet commenters' takes on Google's not so University friendly Google Apps Education roll-out strategy yesterday and also discussed the Google CEO's disingenuous "Google Apps is Microsoft Office's friend" stance, his PR stance, that is. (How Google loses in Microsoft Office battle, big time)

Google Apps users' experiences illustrate how Google is indeed waging a "Who needs Microsoft Office" strategy in the trenches, despite Eric Schmidt's public exhortations to the contrary. What's more, Google Apps users are asking themselves "Who needs Google Apps," given its track record to date.

Morgan Highley pleas to Google this month:

As a system administrator I expect a service I am paying for to, at
the very least, function the way the online manuals read. I would also
expect changes, or fixes, to happen quicker for paying customers. Our
suggestions should not warrant the typical "we're too busy to respond
to you but thanks for the suggestion!" email that everybody else gets.
So, let's start with what I've noticed so far.

Fix the damn bug that jumps to a blank login page when you have docs &
spreadsheets on the default content of your startpage. This has been a
known issue for a while. Fix it already! Just remove the page jump!

To be a truly "custom" section on the startpage I would like to use
whatever code I like. I just want to make a dropdown menu. It's very
simple code, yet you "don't support it". OK, don't support it! I'll
support it! It's my startpage anyway!

When I update a custom section, I want that update to be visible
without having to remove and re-add that section on everybody's
startpage. That is very annoying, and I only have to do it 60 times
per update! What about the companies with 1000's of employees?!?!

As the site admin I would expect FULL control of user accounts. That
means when I remove a user account I want that contact to drop from
everybody's contact list. Afterall, that email address isn't any good
anymore. I also want these apps to communicate with each other. If I
have documents that I'm sharing on my domain I want those docs to
automatically show up on EVERYBODY'S account! Same for shared
calendar's.

He itemizes a littany of Google Apps options/services that he wants, that Google has promised, but that, he says, have not been delivered:

Initial Setup
     Migrate email to a Google Apps account from a mail client (e.g. Microsoft Outlook)

  Migrate email to a Google Apps account from the following service:
     Gmail
     Hotmail
     Yahoo
     AOL
     Other: Name of email provider

  Administrative Controls
     Bulk account delete tool
     Bulk email list management tool
     Store user's secondary email address in control panel
     Set default language settings for users from the control panel
     Set user mail signatures from the control panel
     Configure POP for users from the control panel
     Change mail forwarding options for users from the control panel

  Helpful Additions
     IMAP support
     Synchronized contacts between Gmail accounts and Google Apps mail accounts
     Whitelist/blacklist for spam
     Shared address book for all users within the domain
     User account self sign-up
     Upload existing web pages to Google Apps web pages
     Allow users to create web pages 

   Product Integrations
     Google Groups
     Orkut
     Blogger
     Picasa Web Albums
     Gmail Notifier

gregmalone1 responded, seconding Highley's frustrations, while foreshadowing continued Google disappointments:

Good luck getting ANY response to your issues.  I've been watching
this forum in preparation for migrating our school to Google Apps for
Education, and from what I can tell, 1) this product isn't ready for
primetime, and 2) there is NO credible customer support.

The fact there is no posted way to truly communicate with Google is a
disturbing clue.

I'd love to hear ANYONE give a POSITIVE REPORT about their experience
w/ Google Apps (in terms of migrating business/school email services,
calendaring, etc. to Google).

Glebne, as well:

Google Apps is an enigma. I've just transitioned to it 100% until the
end of the school year for my own use so I can see all of the issues
first hand before I make any decisions to move the entire school.

In many ways it is very slick and efficient. But there are many
puzzling gaping holes that I wouldn't even expect in an early beta let
alone a product as far along as Google Apps.

* How can they not support shared address books? Isn't this more
important than IM or even a calendar? What are you supposed to do,
distribute CSV files to everyone and ask them to import into their
personal contacts list? Not my users! Note that the very anemic shared
domain contacts is not even an option for accounts with greater than
200 users.

* User's have a 2GB limit but no way to manage attachments and no way
to filter/sort or even see the size of a message. What on earth is
Google thinking. Why can't we remove an attachment and leave the
message itself intact without the clumsy work arounds of forwarded the
email to yourself without the attachment? And why does Google hide the
message size like it is a state secret? Shouldn't users be able to
search for say all messages older than 1 year and > 500KB?

Very puzzling. Both of the above are show stoppers for me, especially
the first. I'm continuing to invest time with the expectation that
these obvious features HAVE to be in the works. I hope I'm not wrong!!!

What about Google vs.(or not) Microsoft in the Apps debate? Morgan Highley: 

We "expected" Google apps to be a decent replacement for exchange
since that's how Google is marketing it. "Google apps Enterprise
edition" doesn't exactly say "exchange", but it sure makes you think
it. Besides, Google has made it very clear that by partnering with
companies that do nothing but migrate to gmail from exchange and by
already acknowledging that they are working on a migration tool for
this, they want to take companies away from exchange. Also, Google's
services are not just for students who "would need online services".
It is for business too.

I'm paying for a service. It has a lot of potential and is still very
cool. Since I'm not just in it for a free service and have committed
thousands of dollars a year for this service I want some answers as to
when I can expect certain "upgrades". That list in my previous post is
straight from their recommendations page. They didn't just list those
items because they felt like it. Obviously, either people are asking
for them and/or Google already knows they are important. I would like
the person at the other end of the "premier" system admin help line to
be able to give me some answers. I would also like an darn email
address of somebody I can communicate with at Google about these
things. After all, I am a paying customer.

Perhaps Google will go the (no need for users to pay for) Google Checkout route with Google Apps. Both products are strategetic to Google, but both are having a hard time proving their economic worth to prospective users.

Google Checkout is a loser, really. Is Google Apps destined to be as well?