.Mac not doing so well?

groverat

I just got an(other) e-mail from Apple asking to buy .Mac.



In response to many last minute requests, we've extended the opportunity to join .Mac at the special US$49.95 iTools member price to October 14, 2002.



What does that mean? Last-minute requests to extend the deadline? Why wouldn't these "last-minute" people just buy it then?



Maybe Apple is selling this thing in bunches and I'm off with my reasoning, but it seems like Apple has been pushing this pretty hard and has worked pretty hard to make it look like it's not a total rip-off.



Too late for them to turn back now, though.



[ 09-30-2002: Message edited by: groverat ]</p>

eman

I'm sure it's doing fine. Maybe not as well as Apple imagined, but still fine.

smithjoel

They are making money on it, $50/100 per user, as aposed to $0 for a lot more users. Exteding the dealine is just a marketing push. They know if they get a few more people to sign they will have more people renew in a year.

leonis

I personally don't really care about .Mac thing.



Still the same unstable iDisk

eugene

Well it's made them at least 5 million bucks so far. And they just added iSync into the mix too, so maybe they want people to think it over. It's a last minute break for people still thinking about it. Maybe Apple's going to include boxed .Mac 1-year subscriptions with new computers starting October 14...

reynard

I hope .Mac makes it. Its a smart move for Apple to begin selling a service. Selling hardware(by that I mean "things") is a tough business. Even might Microsoft is trying to increase its move into services, a la IBM.

buonrotto

I remember someone from Apple - maybe Phil Schiller- throwing the 200,000 number around for the number of projected subscribers. They've signed up 100,000, something they seem proud enough of, but they are probably short of the 200,000 they targeted. I assumed that number might be the eventual subscriber base to .Mac, but maybe they were looking for that from their existing customer base from iTools.

belle

Yup. When Apple made the announcement on September 18, it claimed that it had 100,000 members sign up for .Mac, and that they were signing up at a rate of around 1000 a day.



So another 12,000, plus I suspect an acceleration caused by those waiting until the last minute, plus those who sign up between now and October 14. They might reach 200,000.



To put things in perspective, there were 2.2 million iTools members.

dygysy

I have a temporary .mac account.

It still says that if I want to join its $99.95, I wonder why.

eugene

[quote]Originally posted by Belle:

<strong>

To put things in perspective, there were 2.2 million iTools members.</strong><hr></blockquote>



There were 2.2 million iTools accounts.



For example, I own subscribe, ceugene, kidsafe, wheel, and 2-3 others I don't even remember!



subscribe@mac.com gets a lot of mail.



I bet it all averages out to nearly 3 accounts per person in the end. If Apple gets 200,000 .Mac users, that's probably closer to a 20-25% retention rate...in addition to $20 million in revenue year-over-year.

giaguara

well i wanted to keep my old mac account. and seem not being able to do that, could not sign/add it to an other user deal.. i dont need idisk (not so bad but so slooooow) .. i have enough homepage space etc; just wanted the mac.com email. didnt manage to add it...

so i have a new one.



i never got those additional 2 weeks to my old mac.com account.

now if i'd sign in and put myself as us resident maybe that way.. and maybe they give that 49 $ price then...



i'm too lazy to walk into a macstore (there arent many around) and order the "box" for that. i have iphoto etc so no need to... if i win somehow enough to fully activate the old one i could do it (but not with the 45 cents i have in my wallet)..



why cant they keep a separate alternative for the email accounts??

stunned

Once the deadline is REALLY REALLY over, Apple's .Mac membership will stagnate or at best crawl at snail pace.



Just think, how many new switchers will sign up for .Mac when they know they must pay nearly $90 for an email and homepage. Must switchers will probably will probably stick to yr existing free or cheaper email.



And, we fun get alot of switchers too....



Just hope next year membership's price will stay at hte first year special price <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />

ghost_user_name

[quote]Originally posted by stunned:

<strong>Once the deadline is REALLY REALLY over, Apple's .Mac membership will stagnate or at best crawl at snail pace.



Just think, how many new switchers will sign up for .Mac when they know they must pay nearly $90 for an email and homepage. Must switchers will probably will probably stick to yr existing free or cheaper email.



And, we fun get alot of switchers too....



Just hope next year membership's price will stay at hte first year special price <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> </strong><hr></blockquote>



And seeing as how most switcehrs will be consumers that just shelled out a premium price for their new Mac... and remember, consumers like to ibuy things, I don't think they'll have a problem signing up for .Mac at $90/yr, especially not if it comes on four color process shiny paper in the box with their new Mac, or when the Jaguar installer recommends they try it out.



It won't slow to a snail's pace, it'll steady out.

thegelding

<a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/10-01-2002/0001809887&EDATE="; target="_blank">web page</a>





180,000 .mac accounts so far...looks like it is doing well...hope they fix the downtime though....g

running with scissors

many of you complain about the speed of idisk. i remember when it was first launched, it was very slow and painfull to use, but now, it is almost as fast as connecting to one of my networked drives both at work and at home. copying and downloading files could be faster, but not bad by any means for me. granted, i have highspeed dsl at work and home but none the less find that aspect of the service quite useful, though i signed up to maintain my email more than anything else.

bradbower

They're doing this so the stupid people who don't buy it now can't bitch about not getting enough opportunities when things REALLY get cool with .Mac, OS X, and all the iApps. Undoubtedly.



Plus all the extra last-minute sales it'll make.

stunned

[quote]Originally posted by M3D Jack:

<strong>



And seeing as how most switcehrs will be consumers that just shelled out a premium price for their new Mac... and remember, consumers like to ibuy things, I don't think they'll have a problem signing up for .Mac at $90/yr, especially not if it comes on four color process shiny paper in the box with their new Mac, or when the Jaguar installer recommends they try it out.



It won't slow to a snail's pace, it'll steady out.</strong><hr></blockquote>



I agree with the ibuy part, but getting them to buy .mac is still very tough. many current .mac members like me signed up becos we dun wanna lose our email which we are so accustomed to.



These new switchers probably have their own email already. spending $90 annually to change email and having the hassle to inform everyone of the new email and other problems. I dun tink so.

i-bent-my-wookie

[quote]Originally posted by Leonis:

<strong>I personally don't really care about .Mac thing.



Still the same unstable iDisk </strong><hr></blockquote>



Actually .mac has been extremely stable for me. I have had zero problems with it. It handles uploads and downloads at my full connection speed (DSL).



Maybe because they got rid of the 4-6 account freeloaders

torifile

I still see .mac as a way for Apple to get out of it's committment to iTools users. Once this period runs out, you can be sure it's going to be bundled with new computers. "Buy a mac now, get a year of .mac for free." Resellers will also be able to offer it as a bundle. Why else would Apple let them sell subscriptions? Really, what would the purpose of that be? It will be another incentive to get people to buy new computers, a way for Apple to quit bleeding the $25mil that iTools cost, possibly increase revenue, and be a better differentiator from Windows. All in all, a good idea (as a stock holder) and I'm really happy with the perks (as a user).

rogue27

I think .Mac is doing pretty good. of the 2.2 million accounts, there were probably only 1.5 million members, maybe even less, and it will probably be up around 200,000 by Oct 14, which is more than 10% which I'd say is pretty good considering that they are charging. It's just a matter of people needing to decide if it's worth it or not.



Tossing in Alchemy did it for me.



It's good for Apple too, because they were just pouring millions into iTools. At least now they can get some of it back and get rid of the freeloaders who were using 8 free iDisks just to put pirated movies online.

torifile

I'd say that there were probably only 1 million iTools members. I had 2 accounts, 3 if you count the one for my gf (which I used). Some people had 4 or 5. Some only had one, but I'd bet the average was somewhere around 2 per user. Or maybe a little less, but way fewer than the 2 million accounts that were created.