This just in from the big G:
We're writing to let you know about a pricing change to Google Apps Premier Edition.
Google reviews prices on a quarterly basis, and the price of Google Apps Premier ($50 and £25 for UK customers) has remained unchanged for the last two years. Effective immediately, the price will change from £25 per user, per year to £33 per user, per year for all customers transacting in GBP. At renewal, you will be charged the new price of £33 per user, per year. The price of Google Apps Premier for USD and EUR will remain at the same price of $50 and €40 respectively, the current increase for GBP reflects the recent unprecedented changes in the dollar versus pound exchange rate.
We believe that Google Apps Premier continues to represent affordable innovation and excellent value for money for businesses of all sizes, compared to traditional desktop solutions. We are committed to continuous innovation and helping businesses like yours benefit from seamless introduction of new features such as Google Video for business, Google Sites and Google voice and video chat. We're constantly working to build the most innovative products for our customers and look forward to introducing even more functionality to Google Apps Premier.
If you have any questions regarding this update, please don't hesitate to contact us through the support tab in your Google Apps control panel.
Thank you for using Google Apps Premier.
Ouch. Do I scream and shout at Google, or at the UK Government for screwing up our country's finances so badly that the relative value of sterling has dropped so much?
Particularly galling is the "effective immediately" line. No discussion, no forewarning.
It would be interesting to know how many UK datacentres Google have, and how much money they've saved on their UK operations as a whole when paying for them with a strong dollar.
If I'd seen a corresponding increase in the responsiveness of Google Apps Premier, I wouldn't be so annoyed, but the truth is the service has been getting progressively worse over the last few months.
Finally: why is there no global currency unit for this sort of thing?
Grumble grumble. I'll crawl back under my rock now.