In a charming display of hindsight, Apple has described the improvements and updates to MobileMe that rolled out in September 2008. The improvements were mostly tweaks (”Provides a ‘loading’ graphic to indicate that messages are still being loaded instead of a blank page”) although some were potential showstoppers (”Resolves an issue where attempting to add contacts from MobileMe mail was not working” and “Clicking Logout from Account now fully logs you out of MobileMe”).
Why, however, describe all this right now? Well, the initial MobileMe launch was a disaster and the product is quite complex. It is, in short, a copy of OS Xs basic PIM tools like Mail.app and Address Book on a web-based platform, something Microsoft is aiming to do in the next few years/months and something Google is doing amazingly well as evidenced by GMail and their online office suite.
MobileMe is a strong product. I’ve used both iterations for years and if you’re willing to pay a premium it works will as a data and setting storage system. I know there are plenty of other sites out there that do the same thing, but convincing users to use a service tied to your OS and, in this case, hardware, is the Holy Grail of software sales. There’s a reason Microsoft is putting so much effort into improving the XBox Live experience: the users need to know paying $X per year is worth it an $X per year per X million users - simply because you’re running a server farm for them - is a formula for spinning gold.
I’m still left to wonder why Apple didn’t just partner with Google for this.
“I’m still left to wonder why Apple didn’t just partner with Google for this.”
Because they would have been idiots to give up control and money that would have resulted?
It’s amazing with the job apple has done recently there are keyboard warriors who think they could do better.
it really does make NO sense: google offers it for free, including google tools to upload from iphoto into picasa, sync ical and contacts with gmail and calendar (contacts is still a bit tedious) and simple tools for additional stuff not on mobileme, like document sharing and collaboration
once gdocs supports the oddball pages and numbers extensions, it will be all over for apple…the google controls for collaboration and fine grained management of sharing (for photos, docs, et al) is cleaner and easier and FREE
also, msft will be there within a year as well (or sooner), so why on earth isn’t apple just *giving away mobileme* to ALL mac users to tie them into apple services? this makes zero sense to me…the service is inferior to existing alternatives (clunkier, less storage, fewer controls) - at the very least, considering the premium mac users pay for their machines, tossing in a free service like mobileme would speak volumes to the idea that the machine is also a webservice proxy for all purchasers, and since most mac users upgrade every 2 to 3 years, they’re looking at a 300ish dollar digestion which could perhaps be built into a purchase price (though again, it should be free)
they are going to lose all users of mobileme within about 3 to 5 years given the way things are going…and they’ll be the ONLY ones asking for money for this kind of tool set…
I hate it when people refer to Google’s products as free. Don’t you know that when you are spoon fed ads, it no longer equals free. I have no problem paying Apple or any other service provider money for a service that is advertisement free. The biggest trick Google (and others) have played on people, is to make them believe they are getting something for nothing. Google is not your friend, they are a business and they make money with your data and information by providing ads. Now, I don’t have a problem with people that use the service, but to say that they are better because they are “free” its ridiculous.
You are exactly right Moe. It’s simply a different business model. Google believes (and rightly so) that they can monetize their massive audience by adding applications and tools that keep visitors actively engaged, sometimes for hours. They sell access to your eyeballs to brands based on what you are doing. If you actually look at the ads displayed next to many Google services you will see they are mostly contextually relevant meaning they are capturing what you are doing and typing. Google Docs are currently ad free, but then so was Gmail until they reached critical mass.
Even scarier… while in some services like Docs you don’t see ads, they still have profile information on you. You have to have a Google account to use the services. They track the IP addresses you use, so they can let marketers know (not at an individual level but in groups of personas or archetypes) what your patterns are. When do you tend to shop for certain types of products vs. when do you buy and so on.
There is nothing wrong with this approach at all, but companies like Apple will likely never build a large enough audience to monetize services, so they charge for them. Two types of people that like the approach: 1) those that prefer to pay vs be a part of the ad and profiling engine. 2) The less tech savvy individuals.
I just got a reminder to renew my subscription. Unfortunately for MobileMe I will not renew. When I am home I use my computer. When I’m at work I can only use IE. IT won’t let me download Firefox/Safari or addons for my Outlook. It runs ridiculously slow on IE. I use the calendar the most.
If it was cheaper, I’d consider it. If it also worked better I would certainly renew. Too clunky. I can live with just updating contacts and calendar when I get home. It doesn’t need to be free, but it has to be worth the price. It no longer is for me.
I wouldn’t necessary group Google in with Microsoft and Apple in this case. Both Microsoft and Apple are trying to pair their online apps with desktop apps, while Google is focusing solely on their web apps. I am no programmer, but I would imagine attempting to sync over two great platforms is exponentially tougher than simply creating a great web app.
Here’s a funny mobileme experience. I wrote this post a week ago, or so.
If you want to see what they said when I brought up google calendar, you can check this out:
http://scottdig.com/2008/10/20/macbook-experience/
Secretly, I bet half of apple employees use google products.
On the upside, free trial was extended to December…
Attorney Mike Arrington + Boss Gail Husick + CoWrote Book Together + Gail’s Husband Brad–Webaroo Founder + Mike Endorsing Webaroo without DISCLOSING Relationship = CONFLICT OF INTEREST
“It is, in short, a copy of OS Xs basic PIM tools like Mail.app and Address Book on a web-based platform, something Microsoft is aiming to do in the next few years/months”
You mean the stuff that’s already been available on Live.com for well over two years, and hotmail.com before that? I’ve had the hotmail connector in Outlook for so long I can’t even remember when I first installed it. And Outlook Express did this stuff even before Windows Live Mail became available.
Well, let’s just say that last week I canceled my me.com account and 2 days later ALL MY CONTACTS WERE WIPED OUT from my iphone.
Sweet, uh? Apparently Mobile Me still syncs with my iphone even though my account should have been completely deleted.
Following this rationale, looks like my computer will be completely wiped out the day I cancel my mozy.com account.
I contacted ME support via Apple’s online chat (I couldn’t find an online form or anything similar) and you know what they’ve told me? “You should have performed a backup”. Oh, really?!
Ok, MobileMe is a little expensive… but sometimes you just can’t live/work without push sync of contacts, mail and calendar between your iphone and your macs…. so… (personally, i never go to the web app, mobileme is more a sync tool for me)
When I bought my iPhone, I gave MobileMe a try. And then another try and then another. At the end of the day (and I am normally never a hater) it is crap. It would be crap if if was free. Being $99/year doesn’t make it crappier, it just makes it expensive crap. If you want the experience that MobileMe is trying to offer, google hosted Exchange. You can find companies that will host an exchange mailbox for your. The one I have is 4gb and it is $7.95/month. It fully syncs mail, contacts, calendar, notes, journal etc. And it costs about the same as MobileMe. The difference? It works. It doesn’t do weird things like force me to turn off syncing and then on again to get folders in contacts to show up properly. Yes, Google is “free” (or ad supported as mentioned above) but also as mentioned above, it has to be tweaked a little here and there to work right (contacts).
Also, and I am not sure if its just me or not. Has anyone noticed that when you are using MobileMe, there is a delay when you open any app on the iPhone that syncs with MobileMe? With syncing turned on, there is a 2-5 second delay before I can scroll through contacts. With syscing turned off, no delay. I don’t have this problem using a hosted exchange.
Just my two cents. Not trying to be a hater.