Google Introduces New Business Version of Office Applications

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) 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, launched as a free service in August 2006, is a suite of applications that includes Gmail webmail services, Google Calendar shared calendaring, Google Talk instant messaging and voice-over-IP, and the Start Page feature for creating a customizable home page on a specific domain. 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. Google also announced that all editions of Google Apps now include Google Docs & Spreadsheets. In addition, Google Apps now supports Gmail for mobile on BlackBerry handheld devices. Features unique to Google Apps Premier Edition include: 10 GBs of storage per user, APIs for business integration, 99.9 % uptime, 24x7 support, advertising optional, and $50 per user account per year. In addition to Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Talk and Start Page, all editions of Google Apps now include: Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail for mobile devices on BlackBerry, and Application-level control. Google Enterprise Professional partners like Avaya and Postini are developing solutions based on Google APIs, including email gateways, enhanced security, Google Calendar synchronization, third-party integration with Google Talk, as well as offering deployment, migration, and additional support services. Google hosted applications are available in French, Italian, German, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Korean. http://www.google.com/