CNet says today's the day. Google will be launching a subscription-based version of Google Apps for Domains. It will include Google Docs and Spreadsheets integration, 10 GB of Blackberry-accessible Gmail, 99.9% uptime, and 24/7 phone support for $50 per user per year. Google will also provide APIs for migrating data, enabling single sign-on, etc. (Update: the service is live; a free trial is available until April 30, 2007.)
Google will continue to offer free versions for consumers (no premium features) and educational institutions (with premium features, but less storage).
Let's say I work at a company with 10 employees. Google Apps (which include website builder and group start page/calendar in addition to Gmail/GTalk and document/spreadsheet sharing) would cost $500/year. What would the same budget buy at GoDaddy?
* $43.08: annual cost of cheapest hosting plan. While this includes 500 email accounts, each offers only 10 MB of storage, which means I'll probably need...
* $29.99: email hosting for 5+ mailboxes. Unfortunately, this would only give me 2 GB of *total* storage. On the bright side, GoDaddy does throw in...
* $0.00 (19.99 if purchased separately): group calendaring for up to 15 users
* $9.99: cost of 1GB online folder for file sharing.
If I'm not familiar with FTP and HTML, GoDaddy's WebSite Tonight site builder will set me back another $12. Which makes the bundle above ~$400 cheaper than Google Apps. On the other hand, it doesn't include IM, or web-based word processing and spreadsheet apps, or a shared start page that's customizable with 10,000+ widgets.
If I were Bob Parsons, I might have other worries besides competing with Google for customers. A couple of years ago, Bob told the New York Times that:
"Try to call Google and actually talk to somebody. It's not their forte. Now, they could acquire that, but at the moment it's a problem I don't have to deal with, so I'm not thinking about it. If they do, we'll go to work."
It seems the time has come for GoDaddy to get to work, particular since it's looking to hire 560 new employees this year. While Bob handed out $1.3M in bonuses in 2006, as well as "new vehicles, trips, electronics and cash prizes, with taxes paid", such incentives might pale in comparison with stock options from a certain company in Mountain View that might also be in the market for experienced call center staff...
PS - Read on Techcrunch that GE and Procter & Gamble are Google Apps customers. The New York Times and InformationWeek both call Google Apps an attack against Microsoft, but the folks in Redmond aren't the only ones who need to keep an eye on this. See this Techmeme thread for more related discussions.
