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Apple should make MobileMe free

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Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#11

Post by matwood »

ajg1977 wrote: post #9

"There are certainly valid business reasons for Apple to offer the service for free" Then it's a shame the article can't come up with any. The ones listed are either guesses ("might sell more devices") or counter to Apple's established, and highly lucrative, business model.

I agree with you that right now it probably makes little sense for Apple to offer the service for free. A couple reasons that I see that they may change though are:

1) A slight jab at Google. Right now I have my mac address book, iPhone, and Google address book all syncing OTA. It was a bit of a PITA to setup, but works now. If Apple offered the same service for free I would most likely switch.

2) Making the service free could add another selling point for macs, iPhones, and iPads. A "buy this item and you also get into another exclusive club" type of thing. The problem with this reason is that Apple doesn't seem to need to do this right now since demand already seems quite high at the moment.

My guess is that mobile me will not be free anytime soon unless Apple rolls out some new base technology that requires MM to function.

Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#12

Post by justinl »

rbritton wrote: post #5

MobileMe was free at first back when it was ".Mac". They changed it to a charging model a couple years into the service where it has remained since.

Actually, iTools was free. As costs rose, most particularly due to iDisk storage space and increasing support needs, iTools was renamed .Mac as a subscription-based service.

Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#14

Post by sounddust »

ajg1977 wrote: post #9

"There are certainly valid business reasons for Apple to offer the service for free" Then it's a shame the article can't come up with any. The ones listed are either guesses ("might sell more devices") or counter to Apple's established, and highly lucrative, business model.

Making mobileMe free could be a good way to lock in customers to Apple products long-term. If all of your data is on your mobileMe account, it's easier to just buy another iPhone next year than worry about how you're going to move it all off and transition to Google...

Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#15

Post by werrett »

I can see benefit in Apple moving MobileMe to a 'Freemium' model.

They could keep current subscription revenue, introduce a pared-back offering. All the while establishing a web channel for their Quattro Wireless advertising platform.

Would be a good hook for increasing MobileMe up take, takes a swipe at Google and keeps Apple customers in the 'walled garden' and out of the myriad of similar services that are popping up (e.g. Dropbox et al).

Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#16

Post by cmelbye »

Terretta wrote: post #7
cmelbye wrote: post #3

Woops, that reminds me, I need to cancel my MobileMe free trial before it charges me. Definitely not worth $100.

It's price comparable to Dropbox for storage, while adding features well integrated into Apple's apps and hardware. Assuming you pretend the web hosting bandwidth, email accounts, sync services, etc., are free and the only cost is storage, it works out to about $0.30/GB stored, already not bad for a consumer service. For me, instant and reliable multidirectional sync of any contact, calendar, and bookmarks data, acro…

Actually it would be $99 / 20 GB which is $4.25 per year or $0.41 per month, but I see what you're getting at.

Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#18

Post by jonknee »

Terretta wrote: post #7
cmelbye wrote: post #3

Woops, that reminds me, I need to cancel my MobileMe free trial before it charges me. Definitely not worth $100.

It's price comparable to Dropbox for storage, while adding features well integrated into Apple's apps and hardware. Assuming you pretend the web hosting bandwidth, email accounts, sync services, etc., are free and the only cost is storage, it works out to about $0.30/GB stored, already not bad for a consumer service. For me, instant and reliable multidirectional sync of any contact, calendar, and bookmarks data, acro…

> For me, instant and reliable multidirectional sync of any contact, calendar, and bookmarks data, across all my computers or mobile devices, is worth $8/month.

I have the same through Google and it's free. Apple is losing the cloud race badly, maybe free would help.

Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#19

Post by derefr »

UnknownSource wrote: post #10
ajg1977 wrote: post #9

"There are certainly valid business reasons for Apple to offer the service for free" Then it's a shame the article can't come up with any. The ones listed are either guesses ("might sell more devices") or counter to Apple's established, and highly lucrative, business model.

I totally agree. The internet has had this discussion millions of time in the past, and this post does nothing but turn 1 or 2 obvious points into a giant essay. The fact's are.. They wont. Remember, it's the small additions to sales that make sales highly profitable and if they made it free, people would probably register for many accounts and use them to host warez. The .Mac servers are already slowly crawling alon…

> people would probably register for many accounts and use them to host warez.

Do people host warez on Dropbox accounts (in the Public folder)? Those are free and easily obtainable en-masse; you don't even have to keep the files on your own computer if you unlink the account after loading it.

Re: Apple should make MobileMe free

#20

Post by anuleczka »

derefr wrote: post #19
UnknownSource wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. The internet has had this discussion millions of time in the past, and this post does nothing but turn 1 or 2 obvious points into a giant essay. The fact's are.. They wont. Remember, it's the small additions to sales that make sales highly profitable and if they made it free, people would probably register for many accounts and use them to host warez. The .Mac servers are already slowly crawling alon…

> people would probably register for many accounts and use them to host warez. Do people host warez on Dropbox accounts (in the Public folder)? Those are free and easily obtainable en-masse; you don't even have to keep the files on your own computer if you unlink the account after loading it.

Yes, yes they do. The first rule of warez on Dropbox: don't tell people how awesome Dropbox is for warez!
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