I don't feel it needs to be free, but the service certainly does not feel like it's worth $100/year (or even the $69/year it costs if you buy a MobileMe activat

I don't feel it needs to be free, but the service certainly does not feel like it's worth $100/year (or even the $69/year it costs if you buy a MobileMe activation code on Amazon rather than direct from Apple). But that's because I'm paying for stuff I don't use. I only subscribed for the "Find my iPhone" service and the contact/calendar sync. I don't use the cloud storage features and I already have half a dozen other email addresses I don't check anyway. If not for "find my iPhone," I would've just relied entirely on Google's sync service. I don't see why they can't implement a pricing system that unbundles some of the services -- sell "find my iPhone," the sync services, the remote access, and cloud storage services a la carte.