Who Will Siphon the Revenues Out of Document Tools?

Completely?

Answer: Google

In the document format foment, Google has disappeared -- like a true ghost-warrior. The only shadow of the shape-shifter is the beginnings of ODF-readability in Google Docs & Spreadsheets.

This is all speculative, since Google people don't talk -- to me, anyway. Their general silence -- and the rudimentary level of performance of their document editors -- may be taken for indifference to the document software space, and that's not the right conclusion to take.

After e-mail & browse, document tools like Word are the next killer app in terms of the time people spend working the cathode-ray tan. Even though ads would be turned off on the enterprise versions (my guess), this is a contextual advertising opportunity that's a New World.

Google is the only big corporate entity with enough sack whose business model benefits from Zero Revenues in the Office Suite market. Most other big IT vendors are revenue losers. Google sells traffic based on the attractiveness of its technology. They do not sell software tools, per se, even though that is their essence -- one big (and several small) Tool(s).

Although you might think a truly vendor-neutral document format -- should ODF ever reach that Nirvana --  would be difficult for Google to accommodate, it's not so bad. True XML documents that work across all common platforms and applications will increase the size of the Web (in terms of knowledge elements connected). And a richness of choice and innovation in online word-processors will spin up ideas for Mother.

It makes Search more relevant. BIGGER.