Mary Jo Foley highlights an interesting point who/what is the real competition for IBM Lotus iNotes  ? It’s the Business Productivity Online Suite from Microsoft. Lower price, more functionality, more choice.

…IBM’s announcement of a new hosted entry-level communications offering has led to lots of punditry around how it compares to Google Apps. But I’m not sure that’s IBM’s main competition here.

Google Apps Premier, which costs $50 per user per year, includes Web-based office applications (Google Docs), plus Gmail for businesses, Google Calendar, Google Sites and Postini hosted/archived email. IBM’s LotusLive iNotes includes hosted email, calendar and contact management service — but no hosted productivity apps — for $36 per user per year.

I’ve seen almost no one analyzing IBM’s new hosted offering in comparison to what Microsoft is offering business users.

Microsoft already has a business-focused hosted e-mail/collaboration product on the market known as the Deskless Worker Suite, which includes Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. Customers can get that suite for $36 per user per year. Exchange Online Deskless Worker includes e-mail, calendaring, global contact lists, anti-virus and anti-spam filters, and provides access to company e-mail via Outlook Web Access Light. SharePoint Online Deskless Worker gives you read-only access to SharePoint portal and team sites. If users want only Exchange Online Deskless or SharePoint Online Deskless, it’s $24 per user per service per year.

Microsoft offers a more comprehensive hosted communications/collaboration subscription service — one that includes Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Communications Online (corporate instant messaging and presence) and Live Meeting (Web conferencing and videoconferencing) — for $180 per user per year. That is the company’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS). …

Source: Comparing oranges to oranges: Microsoft’s hosted collaboration suites vs. IBM’s LotusLive iNotes