Advertising wars
Google is getting
involved in an handbags at dawn fight with Microsoft. For the last year
Microsoft has spent much of the past year taking shots at competitors
through advertisements. Now Google is starting some Microsoft-focused
advertising of its own.
A billboard advertising campaign targeting users of
Microsoft Office has started. Over the next four weeks, billboards in
Boston, Chicago, New York and San Francisco will illustrate how an anonymous
IT managers' struggles with Office leads him to recommend that his company
switch to Google Apps.
Microsoft will offer Office Web Applications next
year. This is a lightweight version that run in a Web browser and will be
available in advertising-supported or subscription versions. Microsoft
hasn't revealed pricing for the subscription versions yet. Google Apps
Premier edition is $50 per user per year, but the Standard edition costs
just $10 per year for a domain name.
Google's billboards focus on the high
cost of software upgrades as one of the advantages of using Google
Apps. This is the same strategy that Microsoft used to great effect on Apple
through its Laptop Hunters campaign.