Behold!  The day of reckoning is here!

Oh.  Wait. 

Well… it might not really be that big a deal.  But many around the web are buzzing with the news of Google's launch of Apps Premier - the fee-based version of Google Apps for Your Domain.  Apps Premier, which is a Google-hosted productivity suite for businesses, is being called a direct attack on Microsoft by some.

I'm not sure I'd go that far just yet.

But it will certainly have an impact in the long term, I think.  At $50/user per year, Apps Premier offers a huge savings to corporate financial departments.  And the fact that it was launched at the same time Microsoft is starting to seriously peddle the newest version of it's Office suite is probably a little more than coincidence.  Rebecca Wetteman, a Nucleus Research analyst, told the Washington Post that the launch could further delay some corporate customer's decision to upgrade their Microsoft Office deals:

But Google says that Microsoft is not the intended target of this new service:

So what do you get for your $50 a year? Gmail (10 GB and ad-free), Google Talk, Google Calendar, Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Page Creator, and Start Page.  Google will also provide enterprise customers with a set of APIs that will allow them to integrate Google's offerings into their existing applications and intranets. Google is guaranteeing Apps Premiere customers 99.9% uptime and 24/7 support (including phone support).

The Debate

An interesting thing happened when the writing team at the Internet Marketing Monitor was discussing this latest news from the Googleplex:  we all disagreed.  Well.  Let me rephrase that.  We all had differing opinions on the viability of Apps Premiere.  One was pro… three were con.

Matt's Take - Con

I think that $50/user is way too much to charge for a group of applications that can all be used for free already.  Sure, you get technical support and some APIs.  But other than a start page, what are you really getting for that $50?  And if phone support is included, that $50 will quickly be eaten up by telephone calls and tech support within a year's time.  People know Office and they don't want to change to anything else. Most corporations are happy with what they have and Google isn't really offering them any incentive to learn a new system.

I'm predicting less than 250,000 individual users in less than a year.  I also doesn't think the people who do sign-up will renew the product at the end of the year.  I'm going to say that less than 50% will renew.  Of course, this is all based on the current version of Apps Premiere.  Things could change if the product changes.  A PowerPoint-like presentation application would make me reconsider my initial opinion.  And I might actually consider using the product if that 10 GB dedicated to email were set up like an online hard drive that allowed corporate customers to back everything up to Google.  That'd definitely change things for me.

Derick's Take - Pro

I agree with some of what Matt is saying.  I don't think Google is offering anything in the package that makes it worth $50 a year.  Someone could quite easily create a template that brought all of those applications together into a "start page"… and they'd all be free.

That being said, I actually think Google will have good results with Apps Premiere.  Especially if they actively market it.  The price sounds good to corporate types and small business owners who don't really know that all of those applications are freely available already.  If, for example, my parents owned a small business and were trying to decide whether to spend $100/user for Microsoft Office (that they'd have to manage themselves… and troubleshoot… and fix) or $50/user for Apps Premiere (which Google manages… and troubleshoots… and fixes) my parents, like many others, would probably go with Google.

Compared to the new version of Office, Google Docs & Spreadsheets is actually more familiar… in my opinion.  And people trust Google.  They know the name Google.  I'd venture a guess that more people probably know the name Google than know the name Microsoft.  And if Google markets the product like that, I think they'll have more than 250,000 users at the end of a year.  And I think at least 70% will renew.  It's just too easy and hands-off to ignore.  And folks like hands-off.

Mandy's Take - Con

I don't think Apps Premiere is going to be any competition for Microsoft.  People don't like change.  If I told the writing department that we were taking Office off of their computers and switching to Google Apps Premiere,  there'd probably be a mutiny.  And a lot of business owners and IT departments aren't going to want to hassle with having to re-train their entire company on a completely new system (especially since so many already can't remember how to use Office).

I'm a Mac user.  An avid Mac user.  And one of the first things I did when I got my newest computer was put Apple's iWork office suite on it.  It didn't take me long to revolt against my own decision.  It was completely different and foreign.  I didn't like it and the change severely cut into my productivity. What did I do?  I dropped iWork in favor of Microsoft Office.  I know Office and I'm comfortable with it.  And even though my beloved Apple had created a competing product, I didn't want to use it.  Corporate America is filled with the same kind of people.

Andy's Take - Con

Until a year ago or so, I didn't even know there was anything other than Microsoft Office to use for word prosessing and spreadsheets (unless you wanted to use WordPad).  I know Office backwards and forwards.  And I don't want to learn anything else.  I personally wouldn't use Apps Premiere because Office is all I know and it does what I need it to do.

I think a lot of other people out there feel the same way.  Established businesses of any size are probably going to have productivity tools in place.  Why fix what's not broken?

The Experiment

After much debate we all decided to put our money where our mouths were:  we're going to try Apps Premiere.  Matt is going to plunk down the cash and add the Internet Marketing Monitor to Google's list of Apps users.  We've all pledged to use the product at least until the April 30 trial period ends.  At that time we'll discuss whether or not to keep it around.

This should be interesting.  Especially for our two Google newbies (you know who you are).  I'll be posting about the service occasionally as situations or issues arise.  And at the end of the trial period, we'll be writing a joint post on our experiment.

So for now, it's goodbye Microsoft Office.  For the next two months, the Internet Marketing Monitor team is a Google Apps Premiere team.  Whether or not that continues past the trial period will all depend on Google.