Opinion: Why a .Mac-Google Apps integration makes sense

Computerworld - As this year's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) approaches, Apple fans are furiously speculating on what kind of news will be dropped on them in San Francisco. We already know about the Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard preview, and no doubt Apple CEO Steve Jobs will have something to say about the iPhone. But from what I know about the players and the IT landscape, I think Jobs has another "just one more thing" up his sleeve.

I've been looking at what Apple and its partners need to do to fill gaps in their product lineup. At the moment, I think the Macintosh platform's biggest weakness is its reliance on Microsoft Office for productivity software. Microsoft has always built solid products for the Mac, but they were always just a bit behind or somehow incompatible with their Windows equivalents. Entourage does 90% of what Outlook does, but it lacks features right where it hurts -- in corporate settings. Word for Mac doesn't have the same Macro or OOXML support as the PC version. And PowerPoint files are still not 100% compatible between platforms.

Basically, Apple and its customers get the short end of the Microsoft stick.

Add to that the industry move toward Web 2.0 applications and Cloud computing -- and several other recent shifts in the technology landscape -- and you have a climate for change. I don't think Apple wants to wait on Microsoft to delegate how its business applications will work. In fact, I think Apple would like to move forward with a leading-edge partner like, say, Google and create business rather than follow in it. That's why I think Jobs will take the stage at WWDC next week and announce that Apple and Google are going to team up to bring Google Apps to .Mac customers.

Let's connect some dots and see what picture emerges:

• In a recent stockholder meeting, Jobs admitted that .Mac has hasn't achieved its full potential, but said the company is working on it.
• Eric Schmidt, Google CEO and a member of the Apple board, has said there are a lot of Apple-Google partnerships to come because both companies have "common competitors." Hmmmm. Microsoft is a common competitor, and its bread and butter -- aside from Windows -- is Office. We've already seen a flurry of Google Applications for Macintosh, GMaps and Gmail on the iPhone, so why not Google Docs and Spreadsheets integrated into .Mac? Seems like a perfect fit.
• Using iChat as a guide, we know that another network -- AOL -- allowed .Mac users their own xxx@mac.com address as their AOL Instant Messenger screen name. Google could do the same thing in Apps. Perhaps the whole mac.com domain would be ported to Google Apps.
• Google has lots of cheap, fast space. It also has the ability and desire to search it and advertise on it (monetize it).
• Gmail has won the battle against .Mac's mail for most Macintosh users. As for calendar/IM/address book integration, disk space and spam detection, Google wins most of the battles hands down.
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