Google Apps for a Fee
02/26/2007 3:00:00 PM
Google is making their (obvious) next move at replacing Microsoft as the
dominant player in the OS and desktop tool market. They are charging for
business-versions of their services, including Gmail, calendar, IM and "Start
Page" - their site builder feature.
It's an interesting set of competitors they have for these services. Yahoo
and Microsoft offer them, of course. So does every Tom, Dick and Harry web
hosting provider. Netsuite is flirting with these tools and Salesforce.com must
be thinking hard about it. See www.1&1.com and www.oneworld.com, as less
sophisticated examples of these services from hosting providers. Google should
do well here because Gmail plus the calendar is a pretty good combo.
Now here's the question: Will they start making moves into the enterprise
software space too - to go after IBM and Oracle? Remember when nobody thought
that Microsoft could do well in the enterprise application sector without having
a services group?
Here's a quote from their release:
"Google Inc. has introduced Google Apps Premier Edition, a new version of
Google's hosted services for communication and collaboration designed for
businesses of all sizes. Google Apps Premier Edition is available for $50 per
user account per year, and includes phone support, additional storage, and a new
set of administration and business integration capabilities. Google Apps,
launched as a free service in August 2006, is a suite of applications that
includes Gmail webmail services, Google Calendar shared calendaring, Google Talk
instant messaging and voice-over-IP, and the Start Page feature for creating a
customizable home page on a specific domain. Google Apps Premier Edition joins
Google Apps Standard Edition and Google Apps Education Edition, both of which
will continue to be offered for free to organizations."
And here's the full release:
http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=19309
Jim
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