Why should Google wait for Microsoft to launch Office 365 tomorrow, when it can diss today?

Tomorrow morning, in New York City, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer will break out the band and play tribute to Office 365 -- the company's hosted app companion to its PC productivity suite. It's not rocket science understanding Microsoft's motivations, fending off competition from Google Apps among small businesses and enterprises and providing customers with what they really need -- anytime, anywhere access to their stuff on anything.

Google's cleverly titled "365 reasons to consider Google Apps" blog post gives anything but 365 reasons. If Google can't find 365, Microsoft should do so for its cloud suite launch. That would be great counter-marketing tactic.

That said, the blog post, by Shan Sinha, Google Apps product manager, is one of the best counter-marketing write-ups I've read in ages. I'm a sucker for good marketing, and you should be too -- whether you're in the business of selling high-tech or consuming it.

"Technology inevitably gets more complicated as it gets older", Sinha writes. "Upgrading platforms and adding features results in systems that are increasingly difficult to manage and complex to use. At times like these, it's worth considering a clean-slate: an approach based on entirely modern technologies, designed for today's world."

The connotations are loaded and positive. On the other hand, enterprises are notoriously risk-adverse. Nearly every IT manager I've ever communicated with takes the "if it ain't broke don't fix it approach". That's going to make "clean slate" a tough sell for many businesses. Microsoft should tout how IT can keep existing investments and extend their utility -- no risky "clean slate" required.

Sinha goes on to give four rather than 365 reasons:

1. "Office 365 is for individuals. Apps is for teams". Well, I dunno. Office 365 has SharePoint, which enables collaboration. The approaches are different. Microsoft should dispute this one, cleverly.

2. "Office 365 is built for Microsoft. Apps is built for choice". There's something to this one. There is no real on anything to go with anytime, anywhere. Sinha's right to assert that "Office 365 is optimized for Windows-based PCs and devices".

3. "Office 365 is 11 different plans, three editions and two tiers. Apps is $5/month with no commitment". See Google's chart.

4. "Office 365 is about the desktop. Apps is about the web". That's true enough. Microsoft is trying to preserve Office revenues and extend its applications stack to the cloud. Still, there are many risk-adverse enterprises that depend on desktop applications, for reasons sensible and not.

Nicely stated: "Before you invest ten years in the past, we'd humbly encourage you to invest ten minutes in today by checking out why so many businesses have chosen Google Apps".

Microsoft, I'll be watching for your counter-punch tomorrow. Make it good.