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MobileMe to Become a Free Service?
- Thread starter bowlerman625
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They should've done this from the get go, use a freemium model. Give free account with limited storage & limited functionality, let's say 1GB but no syncing bookmarks/calendar/address between Macs and/or no "find my iPhone," then sell a premium account with something like 50GB storage with everything enabled. The only challenge is some would probably just make 20 free accounts.
I just started using it. More like online storage.
I'm not yet certain if it syncs dropbox style but doesn't look that way so far (to me)
Uh, I rounded. Didn't think it'd matter whether I said $8, $8.33, or $9.
Yes, I can get it cheaper elsewhere or through Apple with a rebate (if you spend another $200 to over $1000 first), but:
1.) If I'm going to use MobileMe, and I like it (which, I do), I'm going to have to keep subscribing, and while I enjoy the features, I don't think paying for them is worth my money. They are merely added conveniences that would be nice to have, if free, but are only supplementing current functionality that I can live with. But, when I'm paying student loans, a car payment, rent, and trying to plan for a potential wedding and then a mortgage in the next year and a half, I can think of better things to spend $8 or 9$ a month on. I'd much rather go see a movie or something instead of syncing my email and contacts quicker. Just a personal choice that won't apply to everyone, but it's why I don't see the need to pay for it right now.
2.) I don't buy a new Mac, iPhone, or iPod touch every year to keep getting a rebate. While enticing if I were in the market for anyone of those items, I'm not. Again, just my personal situation.
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+1
The people talking about "Google is free and enough " don't realize the scope of MobileMe and how liberating it is. I could lose my phone ..buy another and be back to 100% in a matter of minutes.
I doubt I'll have any qualms about renewing next Feb.
I'll admit the money is there but Apple skews conservative and I believe what they say when they state that iAds are an option for developers seeking to deliver free or low cost iPhone/iPad apps. I don't get the feeling that Apple wants to extend iAds everywhere. Putting adds in MobileMe doesn't grant them much IMO. The play for free MobileMe will start and end with iLife and iPhone/iPod/iPad/App Store
It's the type of facility that makes me believe that Apple will be rolling out a whole lot more of Cloud services. At 500k ft^2 it's bigger than many of Google's datacenters and it's 5x larger than Apple's Cali datacenter. Apple's plans for the Cloud are big.
Only if you choose to "sync" your data in the preferences as was stated before in this thread so in fact iDisk out of the box does "not" work like Drop Box. I think WebDAV may be a speed culprit as well but if anyone knows of a blazing fast WebDAV service chime in.
Not sure what you guys think about this, but I think it would make sense on the iPhone if they somehow integrate iAds into it... otherwise I'm not sure why they would take a $99 service and make it free.
Because they aren't making any money off it now and making it free with iAds built in could bring in more profit for them?
It's the same reason Google can afford gmail with 8GB of storage for tens of millions of accounts.
Apple could make a bit of a profit integrating iWork/MobileMe/Lala along with iAds.
Yes, you're right. Novelty, not nostalgia. My brain is a little fried afta writin my dissertation.
If you read, they said after a certain facility goes on, supposedly the new NC data center. It is very likely that there'll be a brand new version of MobileMe launching with it, along with iWork and Lala.
Negative. It's not the iAds that make the prospect for MobileMe Free more plausible but rather the iPad.
iAd has nothing to do with it. iAds are premium priced Googles strategy is fairly cheap ads everywhere making them ubiquitious. Apple's iAd strategy is to add "emotion". Checking your calendar or email adding a contact is not a place where people want "emotive" ads.
What those of us who have a Mac/PC, iPhone and now iPad are finding is that sync across these devices is not good and makes buying software a pain. This is why it makes sense to "freemium" MobileMe. Give the sync away and other basic stuff that makes people want to use their Apple gear and when they want to graduate make the paid step up significant.
Haven't we learned yet that Apple doesn't follow the same path as other companies?
I'd get it if it were free!!
gmail is free... so why can't mobile me?
Now I start thinking about it, I've never paid Google a single cent, but I use
*Gmail
*Google search engine
*Google maps
*Google Earth
(*And I used Picasa for a short period of time)
Maybe some orther stuff but the point is... its all free!
Today:
Google -> Advertising - Free Services
mobile.me -> No Advertising - Paid Services
Tomorrow?:
mobile.me -> Free Services - iAds (thanks to Html5)
iWork.com -> Free Services - iAds
They are clearly entering googles market. Online services & advertising. I see Apple as the only company who could successfully compete with google.
Don't negative a possibility, you have no proof that it can't happen, no matter how unlikely it is. You have no proof that iAds have nothing to do with this. We're all talking about possibilities here and MM going free is one of them.
Don't assume that iAds wouldn't lead to something else for Apple. Apple can do whatever they want if it'll earns them more money.
Yes, locking people in the Apple ecosystem earns them money, locking people in the same ecosystem with their own ads earns them even more money.
Well, maybe they will make it free and they will make it exactly like Google.
Have you thought about that?
I would say thats bit trivial since if you don't need to watch for amount data transfer the logical choice is "Automatic". If you pay for according to transfer or if there are limitations on it (tethering with some service providers etc.) you would then be better off with the "Manual" option. In any case you are always working with local files which are sitting in you local HD. Even if you have chosen "Manual" and then sync the transfer happens in the background. Anyway, you're correct that WebDAV is what really sets these apart (and not in the good way from Apple's perspective). Also I'm betting my money on low number of data centers and lack of spread (due to global variations in transfer speeds).
What actually worries me is the quality of service if Apple decides to make MobilMe a free service. In its current form iDisk is far from being snappy™ but what happens when the masses start rolling in? One gigantic data center means very little in global perspective. You need wide spread of them all around the world if you want to offer free and reliable cloud services. Just looking at Google data centers in 2008 gives good idea what was required back then... I'm well aware that Google is a different kind of beast but it's a beast with good access and response.
Google data centers in 2008:
http://royal.pingdom.com/2008/04/11/map-of-all-google-data-center-locations/
MobileMe is a good deal when discounted.
I'm not sure why there are so many jerks on this forum with such a negative attitude with respect to MobileMe. It is an excellent E-Mail system that Apple obviously devotes time to keeping spam free. That in and of itsself is worth a little bit. Combined with the other features it is a reasonable value.
Let's face it everything else that is free is so only in name. The reality is instead of you advertisers are paying for it. Frankly that sucks because they then dictate what the system is capable of because the service is there to serve their needs not yours.
Besides this report has to be read carefully. If you do so you will see that syncing services are to be offered for free. That doesn't imply all of MobileMe. If it is actually a focused freeing up of syncing services I could see Apple making the offer. After all it would work very well with all the 3G devices coming on line.
Dave
I'm not sure why there are so many jerks on this forum with such a negative attitude with respect to MobileMe. It is an excellent E-Mail system that Apple obviously devotes time to keeping spam free. That in and of itsself is worth a little bit. Combined with the other features it is a reasonable value.
Let's face it everything else that is free is so only in name. The reality is instead of you advertisers are paying for it. Frankly that sucks because they then dictate what the system is capable of because the service is there to serve their needs not yours.
Besides this report has to be read carefully. If you do so you will see that syncing services are to be offered for free. That doesn't imply all of MobileMe. If it is actually a focused freeing up of syncing services I could see Apple making the offer. After all it would work very well with all the 3G devices coming on line.
Dave