Excellent work. DO check out this article which has quite a bit of depth on the subject. My comments:
Google uses "partners" I believe (I don't know if they call them that though) who get apps services at a discount and then can sell them at whatever price they choose, bundling in more hand-holding, onsite support, etc., things that Google isn't interested in.
Looks to me like Salesforce could transform itself into a VAR (Value added Reseller) and offer extended support for both Google (and Microsoft while they are at it) in addition to their own "premium" product. They would instantly be the number one company in this business I believe.
Bottom line is... the bottom line. And if both Microsoft and Salesforce are providing their service inefficiently then the old saw about "making it up in volume" applies.
MS Office is too expensive and has been for years. Companies traded expensive mainframe hardware for an even more expensive army of support staff and hundreds or thousands of constantly breaking PCs. Now Microsoft will be competing with themselves and counting on the slow moving public sector to pay for a zillion desktop license every year until the press starts mocking them for it. That is the point when we see what a new downsized Microsoft (or a bunch of spinoffs) will really look like. They may yet discover that Thomas Penfield Jackson was the best friend they ever had.
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