I'm really surprised by the cost as well. I develop ArcGIS Server apps for a living, and basic software licensing to do anything interesting is equivalent to 2

I'm really surprised by the cost as well. I develop ArcGIS Server apps for a living, and basic software licensing to do anything interesting is equivalent to 2 months of service at SimpleGeo. And the ESRI data ecosystem is far larger than what SimpleGeo is providing. I was hoping to see a product targeted at small businesses, but honestly I don't see the appeal. There's a great opportunity to fill in the market gap that ESRI is ignoring, but ESRI will no doubt be rolling out cloud services soon too. I guess we'll have to wait and see how this pans out.