Mobile Me: Why Apple struggles with it

If you are like me and a subscriber to Apple's Mobile Me service, you received an email from Apple this week. Apple says it has been working hard on getting MobileMe up to spec. And if you are like me, you have been less than impressed with the service since it's launch last year. It is obvious through free subscription extensions and numerous emails that Apple is concerned the product isn't what they promised and future subscription revenue is at stake. What is preventing Apple from getting it right?

Here are thoughts on the whole issue. We have come to expect excellence from Apple in all of their products, whether hardware, software or customer service. Few companies go to the length that Apple pursues in design, simplicity, innovation and quality. I am certain Apple achieves this through strict design standards and obsessive quality control in its manufacturing process. You need not look beyond the packaging of its products. Opening a new iPod package is almost an event in itself. Installation of software is easy, simple and very user friendly. All of its products exude excellence because Apple has hands-on control of the process.

But Mobile Me is an internet-based service. In short, it is as good or as bad as the structure, speed and characteristics of the current internet. This is something quite frankly which is simply out of Apple's control abilities. Servers go down, services are overloaded and conflicts occur. Apple can paint a pretty interface and link the pieces together well but in the end, the service is at the mercy of the current internet. It must be frustrating to Apple to have a product with which they don't have the usual amount of quality control and member satisfaction. 

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