[Krtr]

What should Steve Jobs do, give everybody free computers?
He's taking care of problems, admited the launch of that much in one day was wrong and now Apple will learn from the mistakes like any good Co. and make it better.

[whitedog]

It's gratifying, sort of, to see that Steve Jobs knows he and the company screwed this up - it's rare (though not unheard of) for him to admit any such thing. More important in the long run, though, is the question of whether they learned anything from the experience about over-reaching. The more diversified Apple becomes, the more serious the question grows. Certainly the company is better off not having all their eggs in one basket, but focus and quality can suffer - and have suffered - as Apple has expanded its reach.
Such missteps are to be expected from time to time, but they do take their toll on Apple's reputation. Meanwhile, we are waiting for news of significant redesigns of Apple's computer lineup, which has gotten rather long in the tooth. The MobileMe fiasco raises legitimate concerns about how well Apple will manage the coming hardware upgrades. Is MobileMe a momentary lapse or has Apple lost the magic?
Apple has some work to do to rebuild confidence in their brand. The sluggish US economy doesn't help. Apple cannot afford any more mistakes of this magnitude.

[PharmacyMan]

The errors with MobileMe start with its name. Apple suite of products, including dot.mac, are perfect for small businesses that want to emulate larger organizations, but in that case who's going to use an e-mail address ending in me.com?

[heisetax]

That's why those that had dot mac accounts will keep using their mac.com email address. As you said in business it is not about yourself, it is about others. Dot me sounds like it is all about you. I know that I won't use the Dot me for anything business or personal.

The operation of MobileMe is just like the name, not ready for prime time, or for anytime for that matter.

Bill the TaxMan

[paulori]

Have to add my name to the list of those saying "what's the fuss"? To be honest I have had less issues with MobileMe than I used to have with .Mac sync (or whatever we want to call the old service). I was repeatedly having issues with data not syncing, having to reset data having to reconcile 300+ conflicts with the old system. I am very reliant on my data syncing and, so far, MobileMe has improved my ability to rely on this.

PaulMackey

[Krtr]

This is my first day that I've had problems with my MobileMe account but nothing major, my mail is not syncing changes from iPhone but changes made on computer sync to phone. I'm sure it's something simple and probably my phone needs to reset account. But this is the first & only issue. My Microsoft outlook mail for work was down a week before, with an issue and there has been other problems so I still don't know why MobileMe has been taking such a beating. It's been great for me so far, again today was the only issue and I'm still getting all my mail to all device's. Apple will fix these so called bugs and MobileMe is going to be just fine. I think I'll use MobileMe for my Co. soon as well. It's been funny to me to see how people really go after Apple, they have been great for me. Makes me want to go buy something new from Apple, maybe Steve will autograph for me..............................................

[whitedog]

To paulori and Krtr: it never ceases to amaze me how people who don't experience a particular problem tend to write off those who do. The best I can say to such folks is: just wait, your time will come and then you can savor the irony of being dumped on by people who don't take your issues seriously. What goes around comes around.

The fact is Steve Jobs himself admitted (in a memo circulated among Apple employees) that they bungled the MobileMe launch and that they could, and should, have put it off a few months. Apple has a blog devoted to keeping people apprised of their progress sorting out the bugs in the system. They even have a chat service intended to provide more or less immediate help - though it doesn't work very well (no doubt they are overwhelmed by the volume of support requests).

There is no anti-Apple conspiracy here. Tens of thousands of .Mac customers have had trouble with the changeover to MobileMe (Apple reported 1% of users have been seriously affected; 1% of two million subscribers is twenty thousand) and many are still having problems, even though Apple claims to have most of the bugs sorted out.

There is no way around it, Apple blew this one big time. For those who have had no problems, just consider yourselves lucky and leave it at that. The "cloud" is obviously a work in progress and Apple's first foray into the stratosphere has left a lot of people fog-bound. As Steve said himself, this was not up to Apple's standards - assuming those standards still exist, which remains to be seen.

[Krtr]

As I said in a couple of posts ago, yes it was to early and yes it has problems but they have admitted it that. they are fixing the problems. Believe me I'm one person that has sympaty for your problem, as well I'm sure Apple does to. I've had my payback plenty of times but the least of them from Apple and payback for what supporting a product that has been good to me and and many others. If you read my post close you would see that I too am having an issue. I believe MobileMe is going to be just what it was set out to be. Don't wish bad things on the people who did not suffer your pain and try to ruin our good experiance. I do feel for anyone who had serious problems That may be why your suffering now, what goes around does come around!
I do feel for anyone who had serious problems and hope Apple takes care of them for it.
Bottom line, the to early release of MobileMe does not make it bad nor does it make all the good products Apple makes bad.

[oberghaus]

I have no idea what everybody is griping about regarding MobileMe. Yes, the logo is kind of childish and I would probably have chosen a better name for it, but as for the conversion of the iPhone 1st generation to the iPhone 3G and being a .Mac customer, I can only say that it was the smoothest I have ever experienced. I brought my old iPhone to the store with me and within 20 minutes the new one was up and running with all my contacts and appointments from three different calendars synchronized via MobileMe. My eMail at .Mac is still working fine and I enjoy the push eMail.
Everybody guess how Microsoft would handle this one? A new phone, the phone's OS, and the online service - all changes within the same time frame. I guess we would get out a book about fire signals or morse code in order to communicate, since we have Windows bricks and no online service.
Somebody who had a similar perfect experience as me, please chime in, since I will not believe, that I am the only one who has absolutely nothing to complain about these events.
Thanks.

[Krtr]

I as well started from iphone to 3g to mac.book all smooth as silk, could not have been better.......

[saljean]

I lost my mail...
I lost my bookmarks...
I can't send an icard anymore
and I'm quite saddened by it all.
Please try harder next time guys!
Sal

[whitedog]

{quote}Somebody who had a similar perfect experience as me, please chime in, since I will not believe, that I am the only one who has absolutely nothing to complain about these events.{quote}

It went well for you - and perhaps for most others, too. Still, for Steve Jobs to admit a mistake, the problems had to be both serious and widespread. How Microsoft would have done it is irrelevant. Apple is not Microsoft and those of us who use Apple products have come to expect a higher order of quality. When all the bugs have been worked out, all these new products, including MobileMe, will be great (discounting the juvenile name). But Apple clearly bit off more than they could chew releasing so many products at the same time and, as has been reported elsewhere, Jobs admitted as much. Complaining about it, therefore, is not just knee-jerk Apple bashing.

Apple makes mistakes. So what else is new? Nobody's perfect. The important questions are, how does Apple deal with their mistakes and do they learn anything from the experience? In other words, how does Apple treat customers who have been hurt by the company's missteps and will the same kind of mistakes be made again in the future? These are not trivial questions.

More broadly, the problems with MobileMe are a bellwether for the current state of "cloud" computing. They suggest this particular technological advance can have serious downsides. Loosing data is no joke under any circumstances. It's bad enough when it happens due to one's own lapses in judgement. The insult is compounded when it's done to you by someone else. Caveat emptor most definitely applies here.

Cloud computing is in the early stages of development; whatever its potential, it should be embraced with a strong dose of caution.

[Tuareg]

Except for few days delay in the beginning, I have not been experiencing any MobileMe issues at all. I have three Macs and iPod Touch - updates get to the Clouds, and get pushed back smoothly and pretty fast. iDisk syncing with a local folder is another wonderful thing. Works flawlessly too...

[Imagine_Engine]

I haven't had any technical issues with MobileMe. Though I would like to see Apple add features such as the ability to remote lock and remote wipe an iPhone 3G from the MobileMe account in case of theft. As well the ability to remote locate the iPhone 3G from the MobileMe subscriber account. Bringing back iCards for MobileMe subscribers would also be a nice addition.