Apple apologise and clarify MobileMe

Written by Philip Roy | 17 July 2008

It's rare for Apple to so publicly face issues such as those experienced since the launch of MobileMe. Whilst drawing criticism for the quality of the service since its launch last Friday, it has also be criticised as users realise that the concept of "push" technologies for MobileMe aren't what computer users are used to. The concept of push technology is effectively like text messaging...the moment you get sent a message it is "pushed" out to you. The same applies for email technologies such those on exchange servers, however it has become clear that only certain aspects of MobileMe are truly push-enabled and immediate. Today Apple has sent out a email to MobileMe customers apologising, explaining how push works for MobileMe and extending all accounts by an extra 30 days by way of an apology.

We have recently completed the transition from .Mac to MobileMe. Unfortunately, it was a lot rockier than we had hoped. Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running. Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices. So even though things are indeed instantly pushed to and from your iPhone and the web apps today, we are going to stop using the word "push" until it is near-instant on PCs and Macs, too. We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks. We hope you enjoy your new suite of web applications at me.com, in addition to keeping your iPhone and iPod touch wirelessly in sync with these new web applications and your Mac or PC. Thank you, The MobileMe Team

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yuutamichael said: July 17, 2008  

Hm, interesting. This is why Apple has so much consumer goodwill. Vodafone should take note that this is the proper way of speaking to customers.

rich said: July 17, 2008  

I don't see what the big deal is. It still happens, it's better than what we had before and it's still automatic! 15 mins delay? Puuhleeease!!! Kudos (sp!?) to Apple for the good comms though!

Philip Roy said: July 17, 2008  

Hmmm...let's see. The service took longer to launch than expected. During that time Apple didn't respond as most service providers would and simply redirected users to another site. The site came and went repeatedly during that time. They released a software update and then quickly took that update away. The released a revised update and didn't advise anyone, we just discovered it. Not all their services are working. Not all the aspects of the system they said they were going to launch are now being launched (shared disk functionality from memory). Many users still can't get access to their systems or get errors reported even though the system works. Their push demos highlighted instant updates (that is what push is after all) and failed to mention anything else. Is that enough? You say it works. I've disabled it on my two Macs. It turned my Mac Book Pro into a wind turbine with the amount of disk activity it seemed to create and get the fans going. Plus which, as a Mac user, I just can't stand the name....so I'm sticking with my Mac.com address.

yuutamichael said: July 17, 2008  

Interesting Hm, sounds like a major blunder then. I haven't been following this part of things much. I had .mac years ago but just found the interface to be oddly (for Apple) unintuitive. When flickr came out I jumped ship and found other web tools to meet most of my needs. This has been probably the worst launch of any Apple product since the move to OSX. Are they becoming victims of their own success?

Cuby said: July 17, 2008 | url   

I signed up for my 60 day trial of mobileme the other day and wasn't very impressed so I cancelled it soon after. I also think it's incredibly cheeky how they require your credit card details for the free trial, and if you forget to cancel before your 60 days are up then they will charge you for a full years membership. Cuby

rich said: July 17, 2008  

Working beautifully on my MacBook, iPhone3G and Windows XP with Outlook 2003! Maybe I'm a lucky one eh?! ;-)

Philip Roy said: July 17, 2008  

Maybe you're not behind a corporate firewall like me? Phil

rich said: July 17, 2008  

You're quite right Phil! This is a home setup (Windows for general stuff and Mac for music, using the iPhone at work. One thing I'm not sure will work is adding an Exchange account - wondering how that might work (or conflict!) with MobileMe contacts ... eeek!

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