RSSJobs: MobileMe launch 'not our finest hour'
By Ed Oswald | Published August 5, 2008, 4:29 PM
In an internal e-mail sent Monday afternoon by Steve Jobs and subsequently leaked across the Internet, the Apple CEO laments the launch of the service and shakes up management to prevent it from happening again.
The biggest change announced in the e-mail, as first revealed by Jacqui Cheng of Ars Technica, would be the promotion of Eddy Cue to vice president of Internet Services. Having previously headed up the company's successful iTunes division and the new App Store, Cue's responsibilities would now expand to Mobile Me.
Cue will report directly to Jobs, the memo reveals, which means the chief executive would likely now play a significant part in the overall development of the service. "MobileMe was simply not up to Apple's standards -- it clearly needed more time and testing," Jobs wrote.
One way the company could have escaped such widespread problems was attempting to launch the service differently, he went on. For example, the company could have just launched with iPhone syncing only, and then expanding to offer web access to each of the features after it was assured that they were working property.
Jobs seemed to suggest that he thought the company may have bitten off more than it could chew by attempting to coordinate four major releases at the same time. On July 11, not only did MobileMe launch, but so did the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 2.0 software update, and the brand new App Store.
So many releases at once simply strained the company further than it should have, which likely meant that less time was spent on testing out MobileMe to ensure that no problems would come up later.
The extent to which MobileMe was tested outside of Apple, if at all, remains unknown even after the leaking of this memo. Nonetheless, Jobs said Apple has learned much from the ragged launch of its new Internet service.
"The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year," he concluded.
Some still believe that Apple can do just that. "We all admire Apple for its insanely great hardware and software. We're rooting for Apple to get MobileMe fixed so it can truly delight millions of customers and fans," Frost & Sullivan chief mobile analyst Dr. J. Gerry Purdy said. "When MobileMe works as intended, it's going to be truly magical."
I can't believe they're charging such a premium price for such a shabby product. If they lowered the cost to £20 a year maximum, they'll probably get more users signed up.
Having demanded such a high premium and with the launch of the product less than impressive; I think it'll be only a matter of time until they drop the price.
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|Ummm... isn't that what Apple's all about? Charging a premium price for a shabby product?
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|Well I would not go quite that far. Typically Apple is a bit higher priced. absolutely. But the product in and of itself is normally pretty good, after all is said and done. its just the product line library thats compatible with it is somewhat limited even at this late maturity.
IDK. I like apple as a company most of the time. I don't use it much myself. It basically sits in the corner of my office looking kinda dusty. lol I just don't have much need of it unless I do a contract for a school district or something.
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|More free months - I guess you can't complain too much then. Glad they admit they got it wrong, and are trying to fix it.
Reminds me of Microsoft's Xbox 360 support - excellent response to the problems people were having. Certainly going a lot further than their competitors...
Can't be perfect all the time. But they can offer good support when they f' it up. Kudos for that. :/
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|Pure propaganda. MobileMe was perfect from day one for me. I find all of these complaints very suspicious at best.
These type of Mistakes are just not possible for Apple to make. Steve Jobs is simply attempting to pacify a bunch of ungrateful people.
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|HA and my computer is able to talk to my TV with a voice command
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|*laughing*
I keep forgetting you're being satirical.
That was a good one.
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|what MobileMe getting installed in your control panel with out knowing you were installing it is NOT spyware???
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|No, it's called a feature.
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|Reminds me of a Dilbert comic
Computer: "the software is now buying products it thinks you might like"
Dogbert: "I can't tell if it's a virus or brilliant marketing"
Dillbert: "either way" (as he loads a shotgun)
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|You mean like Norton does? It never asked if I wanted a control panel applet.... :p
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|You have to install Norton for that to happen.
Not so with MobileMe.
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|No, it's called invasive and intrusive.
If it's done without permission, it's also illegal.
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|You made a mistake in the last paragraph, it's clearly "Frost & Sullivan chief mobile asskisser".
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