Let’s not pretend anymore, shall we? Google is looking to take Office out back and shoot it in the head. From the release:
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., February 22, 2007 – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG)
today 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 TM, launched as a free service in August 2006, is a suite
of applications that includes Gmail TM webmail services, Google
Calendar TM shared calendaring, Google Talk TM instant messaging and
voice-over-IP, and the Start Page feature for creating a customizable
home page on a specific domain. More than 100,000 small businesses and
hundreds of universities now use the service. Google Apps Premier
Edition now joins Google Apps Standard Edition and Google Apps
Education Edition, both of which will continue to be offered for free
to organizations.
“Procter & Gamble Global Business Services (GBS) has enrolled as a
charter enterprise customer of Google Apps, a successful consumer
product suite now available to enterprises. P&G will work closely with
Google in shaping enterprise characteristics and requirements for
these popular tools,” said Laurie Heltsley, director Procter & Gamble
Global Business Services.
“So much of business now relies on people being able to communicate
and collaborate effectively,” said Gregory Simpson, CTO for General
Electric Company. “GE is interested in evaluating Google Apps for the
easy access it provides to a suite of web applications, and the way
these applications can help people work together. Given its consumer
experience, Google has a natural advantage in understanding how people
interact together over the web.”
Google also today announced that all editions of Google Apps now
include Google Docs & Spreadsheets TM. In addition, Google Apps now
supports Gmail for mobile on BlackBerry TM handheld devices.
Sounds like an Office killer to me. BTW, ZDnet tells us why they don’t think this will dent Office. I disagree. Google can and will address the issues raised here…