14 DAY TRIAL // For a couple of years, Google has been pushing its enterprise offering quite aggressively in an attempt to secure a foothold in the lucrative market. Now, the company is announcing it has reached another major milestone, some 25 million people are now using Google Apps at work or in school. In terms of actual companies or organizations that have switched to Google Apps, that number is smaller, of around two million or so.
"Over the past year, we've highlighted companies around the world who have switched to Google Apps. And that means more than 25 million people have 'gone Google, including those at such globe-trotting organizations as Jaguar Land Rover and National Geographic," Vivian Leung from the Google Enterprise Team wrote.
It's a big number for sure and Google Apps seems to be growing at a steady pace, but the fact is it's not even making a dent in the market share of established solutions from the likes of Microsoft and IMB to a lesser degree. Google Apps had ten million users at the end of the summer of 2008 and about 500,000 companies had signed up to use the office and collaboration suite. About a year ago, the number went up to one million companies and the trend accelerated in 2009 perhaps spurred by Google's big marketing push.
Doubling the number of users and companies in one year is impressive enough, but Google knows that it is going to have to continue to add customers at this rate if it is going to make any significant headway in the enterprise market.
And in case you want to show off your allegiance with Google, and do a bit of free advertising for the company, you can now get your very own 'Gone Google' sticker for your laptop. For too long have arrogant Apple owners shown off their affection for the company on their laptops with their flashy, back-lit Apple logos. Now, Google fans can do the same by adding their companies to the Google Apps user map and without having to wait until the Chromium OS notebooks start coming out later this year.