I just don't get it. Why should one PAY for Mobile me?

[sra. Aguirre]

Ok, maybe I am just plain simple minded, but can anyone explain to me how this service actually works (technically) for me to understand why they charge such a ridiculous high fee to access mobile me features?

Yes I read something on the Apple website, about clouds, and keeping all your stuff stored and so on.....but in an age where you have so many services with HUGE storage capacity online for free why charge so much...especially since you just bought a pretty expensive Mac (in my case)......is this through some service provider?? how does this work...???

I find it simply ridiculous! They could at least waiver that fee the first year!

Gosh...Am I the only one frustrated over this??

 

[iwuzbord]

i definitely understand your viewpoint.
something interesting in this argument, could be the fact that at the original version of mobile me, then called iTools, and it was free. it was not at all like the mobile me we know and "love". the more advanced that technology gets, demand grows and then to make a profit, companies charge. the fact that mobile me is so "easy to use" and that it "just works" makes it worth something. when we buy a mobile me subscription we get online space that works well with the computers that we currently have. since we want online space, and the sync capability, and apple wants to make a profit, they charge, and still, people buy.

 

[sra. Aguirre]

i definitely understand your viewpoint.
something interesting in this argument, could be the fact that at the original version of mobile me, then called iTools, and it was free. it was not at all like the mobile me we know and "love". the more advanced that technology gets, demand grows and then to make a profit, companies charge. the fact that mobile me is so "easy to use" and that it "just works" makes it worth something. when we buy a mobile me subscription we get online space that works well with the computers that we currently have. since we want online space, and the sync capability, and apple wants to make a profit, they charge, and still, people buy.

I would not mind they charge me for a certain amount of free space you get...why not offer ..say the first 50 gigs for free and from there charge me if I needed more space? I really think Apple is slamming at people's pockets just for the profit of it.....if this were an unique service I'd say ok...charge the hell out of me, but the "mobile storage" concept is all out there.
Not everybody needs 200 extra gigs...I would love to make use of that service.....although I have been reading a lot about bugs and "push" simply not doing what it's promised to do!

How I wish I Apple would actually "offer" more to those who buy their high end products....instead of offering the first year for free I prefer my suggestion of a certain amount of extra gigs for free, everything more than that you pay!

(same goes for Apple Care.....but that's off topic here!)

 

[iwuzbord]

I would not mind they charge me for a certain amount of free space you get...why not offer ..say the first 50 gigs for free and from there charge me if I needed more space? I really think Apple is slamming at people's pockets just for the profit of it.....if this were an unique service I'd say ok...charge the hell out of me, but the "mobile storage" concept is all out there.
Not everybody needs 200 extra gigs...I would love to make use of that service.....although I have been reading a lot about bugs and "push" simply not doing what it's promised to do!

but 50 gigs is a lot of space in the online world.not many companies offer 50gigs free. most only offer 2-5. look at microsoft. with their Windows Live Skydrive, they only offer 5 gigs. 50 gigs is asking alot. and lets say they get one million subscribers. 1,000,000 * 50 = 50000000. thats alot of storage and would involve alot of server space. and if apple isnt getting income from it, i dont think they would want to do it.

 

[sra. Aguirre]

I do see your point now iwuz......it does make sense......
hmm let me stop being a cheapskate then... or they could lower the price....to $50 ...maybe they will in the future...

 

[QuarterSwede]

but 50 gigs is a lot of space in the online world.not many companies offer 50gigs free. most only offer 2-5. look at microsoft. with their Windows Live Skydrive, they only offer 5 gigs. 50 gigs is asking alot. and lets say they get one million subscribers. 1,000,000 * 50 = 50000000. thats alot of storage and would involve alot of server space. and if apple isnt getting income from it, i dont think they would want to do it.

Let's remember that Apple doesn't do ads like Microsoft, Google, etc do. No company can afford to offer these services without somehow paying for them.

$99/year isn't much really. That's only $8.25/month for all that they offer free of ads.

*I don't subscribe to MobileMe.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

I do see your point now iwuz......it does make sense......
hmm let me stop being a cheapskate then... or they could lower the price....to $50 ...maybe they will in the future...

I use mobileme for text messaging. The instant alerts on my phone are more than worth it and it saves me money on text messages. Instead of paying $20*12 per year, which is $240 I pay $100 per year and it works very well. I put a lot of my pictures online and mobileme makes it easy. It's also nice that whenever I update a contact on a computer it syncs that info all over; and that makes it very nice when I set up a new computer and all of my bookmarks, contacts, email, etc. are all synced.

 

[rdowns]

I use it to keep 2 Macs and my iPhone in sync (mail accounts, bookmarks, calendars). Well worth the money.

 

[iwuzbord]

I do see your point now iwuz......it does make sense......
hmm let me stop being a cheapskate then... or they could lower the price....to $50 ...maybe they will in the future...

i wish they would.
i really want it!

50 bucks is a bit more reasonable

 

[sra. Aguirre]

Well, I want to thank you all for the replies cause I just took out my credit card and am on my way to sign up...

Does it make sense to use Mobile me if you do not have an iPhone yet??
I do use my MBP at home, iMac at work and my iPhone is somewhere in a store waiting for me to buy it

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Well, I want to thank you all for the replies cause I just took out my credit card and am on my way to sign up...

Does it make sense to use Mobile me if you do not have an iPhone yet??
I do use my MBP at home, iMac at work and my iPhone is somewhere in a store waiting for me to buy it

Yeah, I've been using .Mac for quite a while now, well before the iPhone came out (but not as far back as when it was iTools)

I love the service and it's incredibly useful for keeping two computers up to date.

 

[jc1350]

MobileMe is not idisk. mobileme is not email. mobileme is not contact storage/sycn. mobileme is not web hosting. mobileme is not photo gallery display. mobileme is not system sync (sys. prefs, dock icons, etc). mobileme is not calendar with sync to iphone/pc.

Mobileme is all of those things and more (example: back to my mac that allows me to not have to worry about fighting my corporate firewall and my home router/firewall) combined in one product/service. Free or not, I have not see any such comparable service (all in one). You can get SOME of those functions for free (http://www.getdropbox.com for idisk, gmail, vnc - and deal with opening ports through firewalls, etc), but none are all-in-one like mobileme.

 

[jstanier]

It's a service that puts overhead on Apple's servers and storage, and it integrates very well with your OS, with lots of things happening fairly seamlessly in the background.

I do agree that it's very expensive though, and I'd much like it to be cheaper.

 

[Bobioden]

I use it to keep 2 Macs and my iPhone in sync (mail accounts, bookmarks, calendars). Well worth the money.

This is exactly how I use it. My iMac, my MBP, and now my iPhone. I love the fact that they are always in sync. Now if they come up with a way to sync iTunes I will be real happy.


They finally fixed Back to My Mac, which make it nice to remotely connect to my iMac, Share screen, etc...


You can also find it on eBay for around $50.

 

[TLewis]

Ok, maybe I am just plain simple minded, but can anyone explain to me how this service actually works (technically) for me to understand why they charge such a ridiculous high fee to access mobile me features?

You have to decide for yourself if the features you use are worth the price.

In my case, I'm using MobileMe for the push features (email, calendar, & contacts) and for the multi-PC/mac sync features. I don't care about iPhoto, and I haven't decided if iDisk is useful to me.

AFAIK, there aren't any other places that provide the push features for less than what MobileMe charges. While there are places that provide some of the push features for free, I haven't seen any such place that provides all three. Nuevasync probably comes the closest, but they do not (yet?) provide push email.

 

[nparmelee]

Family version is worth it to us, I keep my MBP, iPhone, iPod Touch, PC all in sync, hubby syncs work pc with laptop and iPhone, we also store our personal domain up there and store some backups up there.

 

[kolax]

Back To My Mac is incredibly useful.

20GB iDisk storage is great, one click publish websites, Push Email/Calendar/Contacts when they are finally 100% working.

Well worth the money - pity it was such a rocky start, but things are starting to take shape now, and I only see this as a service that is going to get better and better.

 

[pixelpunch]

there are a lot of incentives on using MobileMe.

if you don't need/use all these features then it's obviously not worth getting,
but if you have multiple Macs, iPhone, etc. and upload photos and such
it's a good deal, imo to keep in sync with all your toys.

it's better if it's for a family, by buying the Family pack. because you can share with each other.

 

[akm3]

You know how Apple charges a premium for their computers because the entire user experience is better? And Windows people come in all the time and say that it's a bad value and a ripoff and doesn't do anything they can't do in Windows?

Well, MobileMe is a high premium service that ties together the Apple user experience. As an Apple fan who has already accepted paying a premium for an improved user experience, I don't get why people balk at getting MobileMe and paying a premium for an improved user experience.

I find MobileMe very convenient for what I do, and as a natural extension to iLife.

 

[sra. Aguirre]

You know how Apple charges a premium for their computers because the entire user experience is better? And Windows people come in all the time and say that it's a bad value and a ripoff and doesn't do anything they can't do in Windows?

Well, MobileMe is a high premium service that ties together the Apple user experience. As an Apple fan who has already accepted paying a premium for an improved user experience, I don't get why people balk at getting MobileMe and paying a premium for an improved user experience.

I find MobileMe very convenient for what I do, and as a natural extension to iLife.

Appreciate your input, but I AM an Apple fan, and have been for quite some time now. That does not mean that I am "balking" when I inquire about the why of paying (what I considered much) for an extra premium service.....After some explanation from others I understood more about the product and the reason why paying for it is fair.

That I believe in a product and truly enjoy using it I doesn't mean I do not have the right to question it. The comparison with Windows users is irrelevant, since the only windows I have here are the ones on my wall......

I still think 99 dollars is much, as much as I find only one year of warranty ridiculous for the high end product I bought and paid a lot for.

I am a HUGE apple fan, that does not make me blind and deaf for where they might improve or adjust their products......

FYI I already started the trial membership and will pay the $99. for it after the 60 days.

 

[fredsarran]

I have mix feelings of MobileMe. I have a account with MediaTemple that includes 4 domain names (.com), 100GB storage and 100 MySql database, unlimited email accounts, etc... And I pay less than the MobileMe subscription.

MediaTemple does offer eye candy "control center" and they like Mac Of course it all depends on what you need for what.

 

[akm3]

For me, as a very easy and quick way to distribute my iPhoto and iMovie content to my family (Through MobileMe/iWeb) I love it. The calendar syncing/push with my iPod touch is great too.

I don't personally use the webmail as my Gmail account with IMAP is completely adequate.

 

[speakerwizard]

yeah, why should you have to pay for mobile me? when instead you could shop about and pay for online storage, a push email / contacts / calendar service, web-hosting, Online disk storage, and ip tracking vnc services all separately for about 4 times the cost or more? you paid for your computer because you wanted it, why expect things for free? is someone forcing you to use mobile me?

 

[t0mat0]

No need to get knickers in a twist. Heck, if you had signed on to a trial, you'd be enjoying a good few weeks care of Apple anyhow. Seeing as you haven't even got Mobileme yet, it does sound a bit harsh to lay into the service.

If it's too high (for you), don't buy.

 

[psywzrd]

I know it's been mentioned in this thread already but there's really no need to pay $99 for MobileMe when you can pick it up on ebay for $50-65. Once they get it working properly (or if they get it working properly), it will be well worth it at that price.