This idea is being used by several registrars, they domain registration/renewal priced at a premium price and bundle in other things which makes it look like its worth it. Not that Google would be bad but the price $12 is technically the same as everywhere.
Example at Namecheap :
New Registration : Domain Price + Whois guard is FREE for 1 year ( With a coupon code your domain cost is reduce by $1-$2 )[1]
Transfer : Its treated as a new registration too, so the same applies. And usually transfer has some coupon or discount attached.[1]
Renewal : Domain costs + Whois guard is $2.88 [2] ( With coupon code your domain cost is reduced by $1-$2. So effectively its comes to be at the same price.
Now talking about Google, the only awesome thing I can see it provides with $12 is we get to use their Apps for Business which includes their robust email service [3] of course. This recently became paid-only service.[4] Now its not unlimited accounts but 100 alias is enough if you have multiple domains and just need one account to handle everything.
Example at Namecheap :
New Registration : Domain Price + Whois guard is FREE for 1 year ( With a coupon code your domain cost is reduce by $1-$2 )[1]
Transfer : Its treated as a new registration too, so the same applies. And usually transfer has some coupon or discount attached.[1]
Renewal : Domain costs + Whois guard is $2.88 [2] ( With coupon code your domain cost is reduced by $1-$2. So effectively its comes to be at the same price.
Now talking about Google, the only awesome thing I can see it provides with $12 is we get to use their Apps for Business which includes their robust email service [3] of course. This recently became paid-only service.[4] Now its not unlimited accounts but 100 alias is enough if you have multiple domains and just need one account to handle everything.
1. https://www.namecheap.com/promos/coupons.aspx
2. https://www.namecheap.com/security/whoisguard.aspx
3. http://domains.google.com/about/features.html
4. http://www.google.com/enterprise/apps/business/pricing.html