Microsoft Drops the Price for SharePoint Online

By Barb Mosher | Published Nov 3, 2009

Seems increased competition with Google is making Microsoft look twice at its pricing for online services such as SharePoint (news, site) and Exchange.

The company has reduced the monthly rates for its Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS) which includes SharePoint from US$ 15 to US$ 10. They also dropped the monthly subscription for Exchange Online from US$ 10 to US$ 5.

In addition to the price reduction, BPOS is also available in Singapore, and soon India. BPOS will be available in over 36 countries by the end of this year and there are a number of new high profile organizations using the service. Trials are slated to begin in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania and Taiwan.

It's this adoption that is pushing the price of the online services down. According to Microsoft specifically, "“rapid customer adoption, global scale and improved efficiencies from new software such as Exchange Server 2010."

Microsoft is committed to adding new capabilities to the online services every 90 days. In October, they increased their support to 30,000 users and added some new admin capabilities.

At the SharePoint Conference, they also announced SharePoint Online for External Websites and are still working on pricing for Office Web Apps.

Is it all enough to take on Google and the increasing adoption of Google Apps for Business?