WebProNews

We all know that many of Google’s offerings are free, and that the rest of them are cheap; for this, we are grateful.  But according to none other than Eric Schmidt, the search giant may also have kept Microsoft on a budget-minded path.

In reference to Google Apps’s effect on the marketplace, Schmidt told a group of reporters, “There’s some evidence of deals where prices would have been higher had we not been present.”  Ben Worthen reports that the CEO wouldn’t go into further detail, but Microsoft Office is Apps’s main competitor, and therefore the most likely target of the Schmidt’s remark.

Not that this should come as a huge revelation - such developments are common thanks to competition and capitalism.  Hearing about it from Google’s CEO is still interesting, though, especially since much of the “real world” may still not know about Google Apps.

If the program is already having an impact on the market, then the future looks quite promising from the perspective of either Google or the average consumer; as Apps continues to spread, Office’s price should continue to drop.  And if Google ever releases an operating system, then Microsoft may really be in trouble.