4 ms·

"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

by ajg1977 16y ago

"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.

UnknownSource 16y ago
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 along. By making it free, they would probably grind to a complete halt. The author also fails to recognise that unlike Google, Apple's core profit model isn't advertising, instead, Apple actually does the opposite (wastes untold amounts on advertising). So Google profits heavily from their web apps, whereas web app's actually cut into Apple's profits. Great in practice, but in reality, terrible idea. In fact, I'd be as bold as to say this article is as terrible as the idea..
- derefr 16y ago
  > 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.
  - anuleczka 16y ago
    Yes, yes they do. The first rule of warez on Dropbox: don't tell people how awesome Dropbox is for warez!
matwood 16y ago
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.
sounddust 16y ago
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...

by ajg1977 16y ago

UnknownSource 16y ago

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 along. By making it free, they would probably grind to a complete halt. The author also fails to recognise that unlike Google, Apple's core profit model isn't advertising, instead, Apple actually does the opposite (wastes untold amounts on advertising). So Google profits heavily from their web apps, whereas web app's actually cut into Apple's profits. Great in practice, but in reality, terrible idea. In fact, I'd be as bold as to say this article is as terrible as the idea..

derefr 16y ago
> 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.
- anuleczka 16y ago
  Yes, yes they do. The first rule of warez on Dropbox: don't tell people how awesome Dropbox is for warez!

matwood 16y ago

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.

sounddust 16y ago

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...