No-one is asking - to what end is Google doing this?

I can't imagine how much money Google has spent developing these applications, only to give them away for free. Why? It can only be in order to mine all the documents created by users for information in order ot gain a commercial advantage somewhere along the line, or to get a critical mass of users involved before charging for the service.

And now Google has plans to become an MVNO, it will have access to just about every form of electronic communication possible. What next, Google Post, Google Fax?

People who use these apps to spite M$ are merely helping to create another monopoly, but one that owns the data as well as the apps.