How Do You Like MobileMe For Free?

http://sanziro.com/2010/05/how-do-you-like-mobileme-for-free.html

by gaiusparx • 16 years ago

18 14 16 years ago

I would rather it just cost less as opposed to entirely free. If there were a paid alternative to GMail, I would move away from that too.

Paying for something reduces the likelihood that the provider will do unscrupulous things with my data for financial gain. Or at least I feel like they’d be less likely. And ignorance is bliss, right?

fierarul• 16 years ago

I dunno, I pay for extra storage on GMail (and the rest of Google's services) and I don't think it removes the ads. It's just extra storage.

bmalicoat• 16 years ago

I feel similarly. I started paying for extra gmail storage after reading a story of how one guy's gmail just ceased to be one day. I hope that somehow by paying, gmail has a small motivation to keep mine in existence. Probably wrong, but it makes me feel better.

altano• 16 years ago

There is such an alternative: hosted Exchange. ActiveSync is an almost ubiquitous protocol.

Add on the fact that it's currently usually businesses that use it, and I feel even safer that my data won't be fucked with or social networked (cough buzz) on a whim. Maybe on a little more, but probably not a whim :)

It's what I use and love.

ivenkys2• 16 years ago

How will it be any different from the other providers ?

That would be the key, being free is not really a differentiator any more.

roc• 16 years ago

Provided it retains improved integration with OSX, I think it'd be sufficiently different.

Having iDisk to provide net storage to iPhone OS devices would be a fairly big deal by itself. (Assuming they include over-the-air backup and fix the workflow issue.)

ivenkys2• 16 years ago

"Assuming they include over-the-air backup and fix the workflow issue" - hence why rsync wins.

JunkDNA2• 16 years ago

I have wondered if this was in the cards for a while now. I have had trouble reconciling it with a few things though. On one hand, from a competition standpoint, there is an argument to be made that google is providing free cloud-based sync for all users. Therefore, Apple needs to be competitive with them. However, Apple rarely (never?) releases products as loss leaders. They are always interested in breaking even or (ideally) extracting a small amount of revenue from every offering. I can't see them generating sufficient revenue using advertising, but perhaps iAd would be one way to do it.

On the other hand, the cost of hosting email, calendars, address book sync, etc... is fairly small. I could see a dropbox-like scenario where you get a small amount of free storage (plenty for contacts, calendars, and recent email). Then you pay for additional storage and/or access to premium streaming content. That offering could be built into the purchase price of most Apple gear without a dramatic price increase.

Glide• 16 years ago

The real value for most people with Mobile Me will be the calendar and contact sync. If Apple made that free it would offer a lot of value to iPad and iPhone users. Especially for the PC users, because there is no Address Book equivalent to manage contacts on Windows.

But I do agree with you on your first point. Apple does not create products as loss leaders. It just doesn't seem to be a part of their culture to create a product that cannot be profitable on its own.

jonknee• 16 years ago

I see it sort of like the free support at the Genius Bar--it helps keep Mac users being Mac users. Plus tying their future platform to iTunes is unsustainable in a world where everyone else will be cloud based.

TetOn• 16 years ago

>Apple rarely (never?) releases products as loss leaders

Ever heard of the iTunes music store? Minimally profitable and repeatedly referred to as a driver for iPod/iWhatever sales rather than a profit center. Without the iPhone's popularity, the same concept would apply to the App Store as well. When announced, it was directly compared to the music operation, and not expected to make any measurable impact on the bottom line.

This analysis (though obviously flawed by Apple's own sales data release policies) largely backs up these statements: http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/255967-timeline-strategy-c...

JunkDNA2• 16 years ago

>Ever heard of the iTunes music store?

That was the whole point of my post. Lots of companies would be tempted to operate something like the iTunes music store at a loss, since it would be seen as driving sales (a marketing expense if you will). For example: Amazon has is known to sell a significant number of ebooks at a loss to keep prices low to drive Kindle sales.

My understanding from everything I have read is that Apple at least breaks even, and may make a small amount of revenue. They do not lose any money on the iTunes store. If there is going to be a free component to MobileMe, they are going to try and generate profits from it somehow.

MWinther• 16 years ago

I would want/need the option of using it with a custom domain for it to be relevant for me.

UnknownSource• 16 years ago

How would you like an already painfully slow service to be even slower? The rumor that this is based on has no credibility.

And even if it were free, I'd still avoid it like the plague, because there are better offering's out there, most of which aren't mostly tied down to an OS.

This is unlikely to happen, unless Apple becomes a mobile service provider which is likely a bigger possibility.

How Do You Like MobileMe For Free?

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