A number of Google applications including Gmail, Google Talk, Google Docs, Google Calendar etc have been having the beta label on to them so far for a number of years. Google has now felt the need to remove these beta labels to woo bigger players to start using Google applications. Beta label is an indicator of trial phase or trial product. Though common people may not be too much bothered to use an application with the beta label on them, large corporations may not be willing to try trial products because they look for more reliable long term solutions. When a product is in its trial phase, anything can happen to the product, the product may successfully get out of the beta phase and come out as full fledged product or it may continue to be in the beta stage for many years. At times the product can be discontinued due to feasibility issues or other serious issues. Large corporations would not like to take a gamble on their solutions that they use. So the same applied to Google applications too which were under beta phase. They did not get too many large corporate house making use of their applications.
Google has done enough of testing and it is now shedding the label on the beta phase. Features such as Google calendar are versatile tools but underutilized by businesses as they had beta label on them. Google now wants to get bigger businesses to turn to them for both messaging services as well as productivity suite applications.
Google applications are now packed with many new features. We can now check emails offline. Even the calendar feature can be availed offline. Their web based platforms are now usable with Microsoft outlook and it is now with many improved features. The contact management system has been enhanced. So Google has done its homework before removing the beta label. To use the premier edition of Google applications an annual fee is charged and it is $50 per year. This includes Gmail, instant messaging, documents and spreadsheets etc. Bigger businesses will now start trusting Google applications. As per Rajen Sheth the senior product manager of Google apps, “We’ve come to appreciate that the beta tag just doesn’t fit for large enterprises that aren’t keen to run their business on software that sounds like it’s still in the trial phase”.
The above realization will bring lot of new users to Google and Google applications. As of now it has been estimated that only a minor portion of the email market is owned by Google while its competitor Microsoft enjoys almost 70% of the market share. So Google is in the right direction as to attracting new users and business users to its email applications.