We're making this change for two key reasons. Besides achieving tremendous savings, many companies, especially those with more than 50 users, choose Premier Edition to meet critical business needs like data migration and integration tools, granular administrative controls, larger storage quotas, and phone support. Providing Premier Edition customers with new, innovative capabilities is a key area of focus for us; in the last few months we've added secure video sharing, SSL enforcement options, shared contacts, and support for OAuth while also expanding our uptime guarantees. Companies that have selected Premier Edition over Standard Edition have been more satisfied with the experience, so this adjustment to Standard Edition reflects the needs of our customers and mirrors market demand.
Second, more clarity about which version of Google Apps is suited for larger businesses allows partners to participate in the new Google Apps Authorized Reseller program (just announced today) without concerns about competing against a free service offered directly from Google.
All in all, we expect this change helps more business adopt Google Apps through the reseller program and that our messaging and collaboration suite provides more value to businesses. It's also important to us that organizations with less advanced needs, those already active on Standard Edition, and all schools and non-profits can continue to use Google Apps at no charge.
Rishi Chandra, Google Apps Product Manager
