CIO Magazine is reporting that over the course of the next three weeks, Google will be rolling out the long-awaited offline access feature for its Apps suite of business productivity applications. Currently available only to Internet-connected users, the word-processor and spreadsheet components of Apps will be made functional while disconnected via Google's existing Gears technology (which is already in use for taking its RSS feed reader application, Google Reader, offline).

The move is actually only half a leap; the functionality for the spreadsheet module is greatly reduced, being read-only while disconnected rather than completely editable. The Docs Word processing module will allow editing. Still, for corporate power users, the applications are barely sufficient as it is. A read-only spreadsheet isn't worth much in the grand scheme of persuading corporations to adopt the suite.

Google is well-known, however, for making drawn-out, incremental adjustments to its products, and there is no doubt that this is merely the first part of a larger movement to bring Apps functionality to the offline browser.