Google makes move onto Microsoft's business turf
Google Inc. on Thursday made its boldest move yet to challenge Microsoft Corp.'s flagship Office brand of business computer programs.
Google now sells Google Apps Premier Edition, an array of Internet-based data storage, communication and collaboration programs aimed at businesses. The features, which cost $50 a year, come with extended tech support.
The new product is aimed squarely at Microsoft. In offices around the world, Microsoft's Word document maker, Excel spreadsheet creator and Outlook e-mail are ubiquitous.
Google is positioning its Premier Edition as a low-cost alternative to Office, which has about 450 million users.
"With Google Apps, our customers can tap into technology and innovation at a fraction of the cost of traditional installed solutions," said Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google's enterprise division, in a written statement.
Google's Premier Edition is a combination of its Gmail e-mail, Google Calendar day planner, Google Spreadsheets and Docs creator, Google Talk instant messaging and Internet telephony service, which are all freely-available.
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