Playing catch-up Microsoft says it's going to undercut salesforce.com later this quarter when it trots out Dynamics Live CRM, its first in-house hosted customer relationship management software.

Microsoft's already got third parties hosting Dynamics CRM, which explains the rationale for the price cuts. However Salesforce claims the third-party hosting isn't more expensive given discounts.

Anyway, Microsoft is proposing to offer concerns with five or more users free early access to the professional version later this year and stick a $39-a-month promo price on it next year.

It said the competition is selling enterprise technology for a hundred bucks a month and professional widgetry for $65-$75. Actually Salesforce sells its enterprise level for at least $125 a month.

It's still unclear actually what this new round of Dynamics Live technology involves. It is also unclear if Microsft will soon announce its AJAX-based iPhone version of Dynamic CRM Mobile.

This week Larry Ellison's NetSuite announced SuitePhone, a capability that allows NetSuite customers to run business operations using the Apple iPhone. The new SuitePhone capability provides native support for Safari, the iPhone and Mac browser - allowing NetSuite's advanced, AJAX-based user interface technologies such as drop-down menus, drag-and drop portlets, and in-line editing, to be supported. In addition, the ERP, CRM and e-commerce functionality of NetSuite is now also available to Apple users, bringing them an on-demand, integrated business management application designed for the Apple platform.