February 22nd, 2007
Google undercuts Microsoft Office
Google Apps Premier Edition, otherwise known as Google Office, has arrived, big time.
"So whether you're a small business or a Fortune 500 company, Google can power up your organization with the right services and support, for the right price," Google proudly declares.
In “Google: Who needs advertising?” last November, I put forth Google’s plans for a new, for-fee, business offering of hosted applications.
Google has priced its ad-free Microsoft Office “substitute” hosted suite of productivity applications at a small business friendly price of $50 per user account per year.
From now until April 30, 2007, Google’s “right price” for its new, “Premier” software in the cloud for a fee, will be FREE!
By giving away Google Apps Premier Edition from the get go, Google is hoping for a large and swift uptake. The Google “free trial” offer requires submission of credit card information, increasing chances of continuation beyond the initial no-fee period.
Both Google Apps Standard and Google Apps Premier include Gmail (2GB storage in Standard, 10GB storage in Premier), Google Talk, Google Calendar, Docs & Spreadsheets, Page Creator and Start Page.
The Premier version offers service quality enhancements: Google “99.9% uptime guarantee for email,” 3rd party applications and services and “24/7 assistance, including phone support.”
Google Apps Standard includes “relevant text based ads along side email,” an optional “feature” in Google Apps Premier.
How does Google Apps Premier compare to Google Apps Standard? The chart below illustrates.
WHAT ARE GOOGLE'S CHANCES AGAINST MICROSOFT?
Loading ...ALSO: Google Apps for Enterprise: Next Salesforce.com? and Google Gmail SLA? guarantee? and How Google’s new business model hurts GOOG
