As of today however, Microsoft still remains to mostly be competing against itself. The closest to an opening for other operating systems would involve netbooks running Linux, and 80% of consumers don’t know what that is. They’ve never heard of it, will create a prejudice that it is confusing and will re-enforce it all with the fact that it is from a company they have never heard of.
Google is here to change that. Everyone knows of Google, either on par or more popular than the company name Microsoft. Millions have used their services (Google Search, Google Docs, Google Mail) and many will have accepted them as being a respected software company that will make high quality products that are easy to use. So as a standard consumer, to be presented with software from a company that they have never heard of, or to be presented with software from Google – many will correctly assume what the consumer will go for.