<p>Microsoft Office's reign as the dominant productivity suite is under threat from Google Apps, according to analyst and consulting firm Gartner.</p><p>Gartner's conclusion in its webinar Tuesday, titled "Choosing a Cloud-Based Office System: Google vs. Microsoft," was somewhat different than in the past. The firm used narrower criteria in its analysis, defining the two products as "cloud-based office" applications, where the minimal definition of that phrase included products offering e-mail plus text-processor capabilities. Also, the analysis based its assumptions on excluding some growth areas, such as China and India.</p><p>Under this framework, Gartner found that Google's cloud-based productivity suite is gaining on Microsoft's market share. In terms of user numbers, Google Apps had about 10 percent of the cloud-office market in 2007, 20 percent in 2009, and between 33 percent and 50 percent in 2012, according to Gartner's analysis.</p><p>Those findings appear to be a surprise, even for Gartner. "We didn't anticipate how well Google would do," admitted Tom Austin, vice president at Gartner and a Gartner Fellow, during the webinar.</p><p><a href="http://rcpmag.com/articles/2013/04/23/google-apps-vs-microsoft-office.aspx">Keep reading...</a></p>