Google Goes After Microsoft With Software Suite Out Today
Posted on: Thursday, 22 February 2007, 06:00 CST
By Jefferson Graham
Google is getting serious about taking on Microsoft.
Today, it introduces Google Apps Premium Edition, a software suite for companies that provides e-mail, instant messaging, calendar, word processing and spreadsheets. The cost is $50 per worker per year vs. about $500-$600 for Microsoft Office.
"The price point is unbelievable," says Erica Driver, an analyst at market tracker Forrester Research.
Jim Murphy, an analyst at AMR Research, calls Google's enterprise product "the biggest threat to Microsoft" since the 1990s, when Microsoft duked it out with Lotus Notes. But now 68% of large companies use Office, compared with 27% for Lotus, he says.
Two versions of Google Apps Premium (www.google.com/a) are available. There's a free, ad-supported version with 2 gigabytes of e-mail storage, or the premium $50 version, with 10 GB.
Most corporate e-mail accounts have 100-megabyte limits, says Dave Girouard, general manager of Google Enterprise. He says the suite is targeted to companies that currently don't use Office.
Companies can customize the Gmail accounts to reflect their workers and firms (worker@firm.com).
Driver says companies will have to weigh cost benefits vs. privacy concerns. With Google Apps, the files will be stored on Google servers, as opposed to internally.
"It's a big concern and will be one of the sticklers that hold back larger companies from trying it," she says.
Microsoft didn't directly address Google's new software but called its own new version of Office a "dramatic step forward." (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
Source: USA TODAY
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