Google to sell online office suite for $50

February 22, 2007 | Matt Marshall | Comments | |

google-microsoft.bmpThe Google-Microsoft showdown begins in earnest.

Google will announce today it will begin selling online office software for $50 a year, including 10 gigabytes of email storage, word processing, spreadsheets and calendar.

The move comes just as Microsoft is trying to convince businesses to upgrade to its Vista operating system, so Google’s offensive is perfect timing — and is likely to be enough to win over some small businesses.

But here’s the fine-print: Google says the services will be available “99.9″ percent of the time. In other words, remember this is Web-based, and can shut down without warning. Though Google is offering round-the-clock support, it says.

See AP story here.

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Matt Marshall is editor and CEO of VentureBeat. Follow him on Twitter at @mmarshall, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.

  • This is not very impressive…..It just the same google hype…about business applications that can never be any better than the offering that is currently available from Open Office…..The cost of the Open Office solution per user is 0….and unlike the goolge offering it is open source…..this means that if your business needs to add some functionality they can do it….

    The Adelph.us social network currently offers its members “Lightapp” the best business productivity application that is currently available….and it includes a presentation application….and all of the applications are compatible with Microsoft office….and it can be all be used online today for free…..
  • What makes it impressive is Google's credibility. There are a lot of small players in the SAAS movement but companies look at Google and they trust Google. A lot of companies (and execs especially) don't trust open source. I'm not taking an opinion on open source, but a lot of companies choose paid solutions and they sleep better as a result. Financial transactions breed trust.

    Compared to Google Apps, no one has heard of Adelph.us (it's new to me at least). Whether Google Apps is the best option is an open question. But companies make decisions based on imperfect information--they don't want to spend the time to research and implement all possible solutions.