Fortune's 'Inside Apple' describes a furious Steve Jobs after MobileMe launch

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
The shaky debut of Apple's revamped cloud service MobileMe in 2008 prompted Chief Executive Steve Jobs to chastise those responsible for the service, Fortune's new "Inside Apple" feature reveals.



After MobileMe launched and received a poor review from The Wall Street Journal's Walt Mossberg, Jobs assembled the team that created the service and scolded them, according to a new profile in the latest issue Fortune, summarized by Business Insider. The meeting took place at the auditorium on Apple's campus that the company uses to do product demonstrations for the press.



Jobs reportedly asked the MobileMe team what the new product was supposed to do. When an employee told Jobs what the purpose of MobileMe was, the CEO reportedly responded: "So why the f--- doesn't it do that?"



"You've tarnished Apple's reputation..." Jobs reportedly said. "You should hate each other for having let each other down... Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us."



Following the meeting, Jobs is said to have named a new executive to be in charge of the MobileMe service. Author Adam Lashinsky at Fortune also reported that most of the team that built the original service was disbanded.



The MobileMe "push" service was introduced in June 2009 as a successor to .Mac, with Web-based applications including mail, contacts and calendar. But MobileMe got off to a rocky start, and Apple apologized and offered a free 30-day subscription after a multitude of problems occurred.



Now, in 2011, Apple is believed to be on the verge of introducing a successor to MobileMe, potentially named "iCloud." Last month, AppleInsider exclusively reported that the soon-to-debut Internet cloud service will offer music streaming and enhanced sync capabilities between connected devices.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 117
    applezillaapplezilla Posts: 941member
    That 'revamp' of MobileMe was lipstick on a pig. I hope that whatever is coming will make us go 'wow,' like the iPhone did at launch.



    I am at a critical decision stage for my cloud needs. Make it 'magical,' Steve and team.
  • Reply 2 of 117
    christopher126christopher126 Posts: 4,366member
    I'm a big fan of Apple and have been a MobileMe user since the iTools, .Mac days. But I agree, this has not been a very well realized product from Apple. The only reason I use it is for the email integration and the contact management syncing with my iPhone 4.



    I never use the MobileMe homepage or photo sharing. I think those have been overshadowed or even replaced by facebook. I use DropBox over iDisk. iDisk is atrociously slow.
  • Reply 3 of 117
    I wonder if Steve Jobs knows about the iPhoto roll out. I never did get all my photos recovered.
  • Reply 4 of 117
    mrstepmrstep Posts: 511member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    I'm a big fan of Apple and have been a MobileMe user since the iTools, .Mac days. But I agree, this has not been a very well realized product from Apple. The only reason I use it is for the email integration and the contact management syncing with my iPhone 4.



    I never use the MobileMe homepage or photo sharing. I think those have been overshadowed or even replaced by facebook. I use DropBox over iDisk. iDisk is atrociously slow.



    Totally, Apple hopefully either has something better than Dropbox planned or should have bought Dropbox as their networked file solution. It's so much better than iDisk.



    Not to mention random issues with keychain sync that finally had me turn it off - corrupting the keychain and then propagating that across multiple machines turned out to be worse than just syncing a certificate now and then manually.



    Anyway, hopefully they have something cool coming, there's certainly been a long enough gap in real updates that might mean they had time to do a complete rework of it all.
  • Reply 5 of 117
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by moe-jiller View Post


    I wonder if Steve Jobs knows about the iPhoto roll out. I never did get all my photos recovered.



    Luckily you had them all backed up, right?

    Right???
  • Reply 6 of 117
    2 cents2 cents Posts: 307member
    I'm expecting a lot in the new roll out. Way more than some dropbox lookalilke. It's been discussed here before so I won't get into it again. Let's just say I am prepared to be amazed.
  • Reply 7 of 117
    sofabuttsofabutt Posts: 99member
    I used .Mac about 10 years ago. I have to say that syncing files to it wasn't easy or quick at all. I gave up on .Mac after the first year.



    Now with all the free services offered on the net that compete well with MobileMe, it's hard to consider paying for these services.



    There are a lot of pioneering services out there that Apple has to compete with now. Apple has a lot to measure up to and a lot of value deliver to its customers before it can compete. Apple will really have to wow if it's ever going to get MobileMe in to anyone's hands.
  • Reply 8 of 117
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by moe-jiller View Post


    I wonder if Steve Jobs knows about the iPhoto roll out. I never did get all my photos recovered.



    Hey, remember clicking that little agree button. You agreed that any loss of information due to YOU not being RESPONSIBLE to back up what's important to YOU, won't be apple's responsibility. Take some god damn responsibility lolol...jeeezzz adults act as ignorant as kids.
  • Reply 9 of 117
    joe in miamijoe in miami Posts: 158member
    I don't know where I read about revised pricing for MobileMe, but I just got whacked another $140 on my renewal. In fairness, I do use iDisk, Gallery and synched calendars. Would like to see a little more storage space for the price.
  • Reply 10 of 117
    sprockketssprockkets Posts: 796member
    Quote:

    "You've tarnished Apple's reputation..." Jobs reportedly said. "You should hate each other for having let each other down... Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us."



    Hate each other? That's pretty funny, in that it is pretty messed up.



    Well, after hearing our number 2 in our company tear us a new one, this is really business as usual, I guess?
  • Reply 11 of 117
    This article totally reminds me of those subtitled Downfall Youtube videos.
  • Reply 12 of 117
    wigginwiggin Posts: 2,265member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by christopher126 View Post


    I never use the MobileMe homepage or photo sharing. I think those have been overshadowed or even replaced by facebook. I use DropBox over iDisk. iDisk is atrociously slow.



    I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of merger between MobileMe and Ping to make it easier to share content. Currently you can post photos, but you can't really do anything with them after they are posted (tagging, mapping, etc). And there is no good way to get people to your photo page.



    Apple has a lot of different online services that are similar to other services out there (email, photos, syncing, cloud storage, chat, video chat, social network, music, video), but not a single one of Apple's components are "best in class", or even close in most instances, except for music.



    So how much do we think Apple is going to bite off this time? Hopefully not more than it can chew, like with the MobileMe rollout.
  • Reply 13 of 117
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Sofabutt View Post


    I used .Mac about 10 years ago. I have to say that syncing files to it wasn't easy or quick at all. I gave up on .Mac after the first year.



    Now with all the free services offered on the net that compete well with MobileMe, it's hard to consider paying for these services.



    There are a lot of pioneering services out there that Apple has to compete with now. Apple has a lot to measure up to and a lot of value deliver to its customers before it can compete. Apple will really have to wow if it's ever going to get MobileMe in to anyone's hands.



    There are some services that are far better than the MobileMe counterpart (Dropbox and SugarSync compared to iDisk are prime examples) but I don?t know of a single product that competes well with MobileMe as a whole.



    Some of Apple?s other advancements have obsolesced some of MobileMe?s features. For example, the syncing and backup of so many personal settings and info that go well beyond what MS? Active Sync can achieve. Another is Find My iPhone which Apple made a free service thus demising its value in another way.



    Others simply have no equal, like Back To My Mac which means I can input my MobileMe credentials and have access to all computers both in Finder and as a remote client without any additional setup. For $65/year I get plenty of use from the service.
  • Reply 14 of 117
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Wiggin View Post


    I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of merger between MobileMe and Ping to make it easier to share content.



    That?s an idea I haven?t heard yet. Sounds like a brilliant way for Apple to strengthen and increase their ecosystem.
  • Reply 15 of 117
    ktappektappe Posts: 823member
    If this happened, why is it only surfacing now, nearly 3 years later? Is there any chance this was "leaked" by Apple to start seeding interest in the new iCloud?
  • Reply 16 of 117
    suddenly newtonsuddenly newton Posts: 13,819member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sprockkets View Post


    Hate each other? That's pretty funny, in that it is pretty messed up.



    Well, after hearing our number 2 in our company tear us a new one, this is really business as usual, I guess?



    While I think "hate each other" is a strange way to put it, I get the impression that he really cares about Apple not embarrassing itself with the equivalent of a Windows Vista or Kin product launch. I sometimes wish more executives would take that kind of passionate stake in the outcome of their products.
  • Reply 17 of 117
    magicjmagicj Posts: 406member
    Isn't this really old news?



    A more interesting article would be an example of "cloud" tech that people actually use. There aren't too many I'm aware of.
  • Reply 18 of 117
    magicjmagicj Posts: 406member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Suddenly Newton View Post


    While I think "hate each other" is a strange way to put it, I get the impression that he really cares about Apple not embarrassing itself with the equivalent of a Windows Vista or Kin product launch. I sometimes wish more executives would take that kind of passionate stake in the outcome of their products.



    Yes, but the time for Jobs to ask "What does this product do?" is before it's launched, not after.
  • Reply 19 of 117
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ktappe View Post


    If this happened, why is it only surfacing now, nearly 3 years later? Is there any chance this was "leaked" by Apple to start seeding interest in the new iCloud?



    Maybe? but to me it seems counterintuitive for Apple to announce that it has failed and Jobs exclaiming "So why the f--- doesn't it do that?? to his employees.



    For most products failures your best move is to do what you can to hid the failure, which often includes changing its name to further dislodge any deleterious brand associations.
  • Reply 20 of 117
    solipsismsolipsism Posts: 25,726member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by magicj View Post


    Isn't this really old news?



    A more interesting article would be an example of "cloud" tech that people actually use. There aren't too many I'm aware of.



    People use ?cloud? tech constantly, they just don?t think of it as such because 1) they were using it long before they thought of it as a ?cloud?, and 2) it?s more vertically integrated than the manual network data storage that tends to get the brunt of label associations.



    Cloud services don?t exclude local services or non-browser-based local apps. Email, IMs, Twitter, nearly all of Google services, and Netflix are all examples of cloud-based operations.
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