Google's buggy Gmail app for Apple's iOS could sour enterprises on it

Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) has been pushing hard into the enterprise space with its recently redesigned suite of cloud-based apps.

And it's really making some waves. Increasingly, government agencies--like the State of Wyoming, which moved all of its 10,000 employees to Google Apps for Government in June, and the federal government's General Services Administration, which moved 17,000 workers to the platform in July--are looking at the potential savings and buying into the software.

Wyoming expects to save at least $1 million annually; that number increases if it factors in employee productivity and server and licensing costs. It also spent less than the $5 million it allocated to make the move, which included consolidating email from the 13 current platforms it employs to a single Google cloud-based platform.

"Just looking at the number of staff alone that were dedicated to handling the mail solutions when they were disparate across agencies, you're going to see a dramatic change in the amount of personnel required by the state," Flint Waters, the state's CTO said at the time.

The GSA, meanwhile, moved 17,000 employees to Google Apps; it was the first of more than a dozen federal agencies that are slated to make the transition. That move will cost taxpayers $6.7 million, but it is expected to save the GSA alone about $15.2 million in reduced email operation costs over the next five years, said GSA Administrator Martha Johnson. The federal market alone for cloud services is expected to top $20 billion.

Integral to all of this, of course, is the Gmail component of the suite, a piece that currently holds just a 1 percent market share in the enterprise space. But it holds so much potential that Gartner earlier this year classified it as a significant threat to Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) email dominance.

But not everyone is thrilled with Gmail's functionality (aside from its recent redesign).

In Los Angeles, the Google Apps for Government roll out at the LAPD hit a major snag when officials raised concerns about possible security issues. The problems are nagging enough that a number of critics have raised concerns about the suite's ability to replace products from other vendors, most notably, Microsoft.

New, often, is hard. As IDC analyst Al Hilwa told the Wall Street Journal about the Google-LAPD tiff: "When you're trying to do something new and disruptive, you're going to have to go through these teething things."

And, there's the rub. Enterprise customers aren't as likely to be willing to suffer through the fits and starts of new technology, especially relating to security. They're looking for technology that solves problems, saves money and is generally easy to implement.

Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad is an example of that. And, even the iPhone, which early on met with resistance from businesses worried about support and the burden of yet another device on their IT staff, has become almost ubiquitous in its enterprise deployment.

That's why Google's faux pas this week in rolling out a buggy Gmail for iOS 5 app carries such potential weight.

Even though Google quickly pulled it off the virtual shelves of the App Store, there was such a strong reaction to it that I won't be very surprised it Google waits awhile before re-releasing the app, giving the angst it created some more time to dissipate.

Personally, I can't wait for a native Gmail to be released for my iPhone... but I'd like it to actually work this time. How about you?--Jim