I'm not seeing any significant improvements to Google's basic enterprise applications namely, Mail, Contacts, Calendar, and Documents. They started fast and heavy building out the features or buying companies with existing products but lately, it seems they're in almost maintenance mode. They're far from done and still (way) behind Microsoft Office. So, what gives?
I host my own domain (standard) on Google and use it for personal needs. I love the Calendar app, the sharing features in Calendar and Documents, and the corresponding apps for my Android phone (wish my iPad had the same apps). There's enough functionality to satisfy me "the consumer" but not me "the enterprise user".
For the enterprise, I look at every application from 2 perspectives, UI and API. You need both for a great UX. Users want a great UI and all their apps to work seamlessly together. Google's UI is improving, albeit slowly, but their APIs have stalled. There hasn't been any new versions in over a year now. The APIs were just OK to begin with so you'd expect to see a ton of improvements. Better support for structured data and a usable search capability are just a couple that come to mind. Can you believe that you still cannot search contacts using name, email, or phone #?
I like the idea of hiring a team to develop an application they've never built before. They're not bound by previous experiences so they can create a new (and hopefully better) experience. BUT, at some point you'll need to hire some folks with experience to complement the team and build out the features users need.
