<p>Microsoft Office 365 now features a free 90-day trial for small businesses with up to 10 users. The Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) offer emerges as Google Apps shifts to a paid model for small businesses. The bottom line: Microsoft and Google remain locked in a price war across their SaaS and IaaS cloud platforms.</p><p>Indeed, Microsoft recently cut Windows Azure prices in response to Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services price cuts.</p><p>Amid all the price cuts and free trials, I'm not sure small businesses are willing to jump from one cloud service to another. As a small business co-founder myself, I basically stick with SaaS applications that work and don't "leap" to a new option simply because a free trial pops up.</p><p>To add extra incentive, Microsoft is inspiring on-premises Office 2010 customers with special clojd trials. According to a Microsoft blog entry from Tony Tai: "Small businesses that purchase and activate a copy of Microsoft Office Home &amp; Business 2010 or Microsoft Office Professional 2010 will receive a 90-day free trial of Office 365 Small Business Premium for up to five users. Office 365 Small Business Premium combines the power of Office 365 small business services with Office software for your users' PCs or Macs."</p><p><a href="http://talkincloud.com/small-and-midsize-business-smb-cloud-computing/microsoft-office-365-free-small-business-trial-counte">Keep reading...</a></p><p>Read also:</p><p><a href="http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-offers-office-365-carrot-to-disenfranchised-google-apps-small-business-users-7000008976/">Microsoft offers Office 365 carrot to disenfranchised Google Apps small ...</a> (ZDNet)</p><p><a href="http://www.neowin.net/news/small-businesses-can-now-get-90-day-free-trial-of-office-365">Small businesses can now get 90 day free trial of Office 365</a> (Neowin)</p><p><a href="http://www.winbeta.org/news/90-day-free-trial-now-available-small-businesses">90 day free trial now available for Small businesses</a> (WinBeta)</p><p>Explore: <a href="http://news.google.com/news/more?ncl=djNMuX4Ik94PXqMftF2H1nc7lS_xM&ned=us">6 additional articles.</a></p>