Google has announced big changes to its Drive cloud storage and Apps suite, all intended to compete more effectively with the Microsoft Office 365 juggernaut. I have to wonder how much it really matters.

To understand the creation of the new Google Drive for Work, I take you to a secret meeting held deep inside Google’s headquarters.

“Microsoft is giving people a terabyte of storage, almost for free,” the lead Googler says. “How do we respond?”

The sound of thinking is heard — Winnie the Pooh style (“think, think, think!”).

“I know!” says some engineer with an unpronounceable last (first?) name and an Ivy League degree. “Let’s make our storage unlimited! With a 5TB maximum upload size! It’s not like anyone will actually use that much. What have we got to lose?”

And so the die was cast. Not that this actually happened and I know for a fact that some Google engineers have names that can be pronounced. Nevertheless, on Wednesday, Google introduced a new premium version of its Drive cloud storage service, priced at $10/user-per-month. It also improved its apps offering.

Drive for Work is among several announcements Google made at its I/O conference, intended to make Google Apps and Drive more competitive with Microsoft Office 365. There are improved versions of the Drive app and improvements to the offline Docs, Slides and Sheets apps, including a new commenting feature in the word processor. Google continues to push live group editing as a key selling point for its cloud-based suite.

Google Docs, Sheets and Slides also gained the ability to read and write Microsoft documents without conversion, though I’d want to see how the results look when a document is repeatedly edited and sent from a Docs user to someone running Word.

Better compatibility, however, could  make Google’s apps attractive to organizations where only some users need the full features and functionality of Microsoft Office. In that case, the choice between all-Microsoft and a shared environment may become one of dollars and cents.

Unless Google further reduces prices it appears a monthly subscription to the improved apps and drive will cost a combined $20-a-month per user. Microsoft Office 365 for businesses starts at $12.50-a-month-per-user. My guess is Google will find some way to beat Microsoft’s pricing.

Unlimited marketing ploys

From a marketing viewpoint, I think “1TB storage” actually sounds better than “unlimited” storage. People don’t believe unlimited anything really is anymore. My wife’s AT&T “unlimited” cellular data plan throttles download speed if her idea of unlimited exceeds the phone company’s.

If Google wanted to catch attention it might have been better off promising 100TB storage or some other huge, but defined, amount. Offerings 100x Microsoft is much more impressive than the vague-sounding “unlimited.”

These announcements make it clear that Google’s apps suite and, to a lesser extent, Drive only seemed to have been on the back burner for the last two years. Google has added features that keep it competitive with Microsoft Office and OneDrive, but it seem unlikely to change the overall market landscape.

Where Google once seemed to have a price advantage over boxed copies of Microsoft Office, that vanished with the release of the subscription-based Office 365. While Google has improved its offering, the price comparison may actually favor Microsoft. Which seems odd.

Your enterprise pricing, however, will vary.

photo credit: gadl via photopin cc