Microsoft could have been close to this, but Google is really executing here.
Make no mistake, this is not about the Hardware - this is training kids on an office suite. GDocs as a long game against MS Office 365. Kids get older, habits and skills stay. Brought up on Gmail, GDocs they will have issues with Word, Excel.
While I agree in terms of casual use, it is important to note that for a power user, nothing can hold a candle to Microsoft Office. I speak primarily from experience in Excel, but I am sure there are points to be made across the suite.
Excel as a business analyst's tool is far beyond any competitors. Especially since 2010, with the Power Pivot add-on, you get a seamless promotion path from analyst's desktop to a fully integrated BI solution across the enterprise.
I know I might sound a bit fanboyish above, and I'll acknowledge that I speak from my position as a BI consultant for a Microsoft partner. This being said, I'm also in a position where I have seen that transition where an analyst's local Power Pivot workbook becomes the basis for an enterprise reporting solution using SSAS and Power BI + SSRS many times.
> Excel as a business analyst's tool is far beyond any competitors.
Honestly, Excel (or any spreadsheet really) is quite clunky for a lot of these tasks.
In most of my University classes (economics/finance stream) that require me to analyse data and present it, I use R (w/ R Studio), and it's far superior - both for parsing the data, and for presenting it (and of course R is standard for any statistics course beyond the intro courses). R can even create 'pivot tables' and many other interactive HTML widgets.
And while we still learn Excel, we were also forced to learn Python and SQL.
The fact of the matter is that the majority of business analysts and 100%[0] of the consumers of their analysis are only comfortable with a spreadsheet. I'd say less than 50% of the business analysts we see can do more than write a join in SQL, 90% dump data straight to Excel for processing and presentation. The remaining 10% will use whatever BI tool their company has decided on.
[0] Close enough not to matter.
Note: the percentages above are based on my experience consulting with primarily non-tech-related clients and are based on my casual observations and those of my coworkers. Microsoft Excel has a stranglehold on the niche we're discussing, because it hits the sweet spot of functionality and usability for the people who are doing this work in most companies.
And I suspect it will change over time. The newer generation has much, much higher computer literacy.
Programming (Python and SQL) is required in the University I attend for any stream beyond a basic language degree. R is required for stats.
My mother is a business analyst, she uses Excel. Needs to find the IT guy to do anything with a database. Building a database and doing complex queries was an assignment in a required introductory course I took as a freshman. She thinks pivot tables are black magic and prides herself on knowing how to make them. We did pivot tables in two 50-minute classes.
I don't doubt your experience at all. But I do think Excel's stranglehold is/will weaken - it's clunky, and newer generations are learning programming even in non-CPSC streams.
Make no mistake, this is not about the Hardware - this is training kids on an office suite. GDocs as a long game against MS Office 365. Kids get older, habits and skills stay. Brought up on Gmail, GDocs they will have issues with Word, Excel.
MS better step up.