Gmail has been released quite a while ago. To keep calling it a beta is just a marketing tool. It's a way of avoiding admitting the serious problems it has always had.
Apple will clear this up before too long. They always do.
MSN is in bad shape as well. And look at AOL.
Yahoo mail has its own problems.
When RIM's servers go down, as they do every so often, it's a major problem.
No one is immune.
This is a bad startup problem, that's for sure. But we all know it will be fixed. Will there ways be minor problems cropping up? Yes. Nothing is perfect.
Apple miscalculated. They admitted that already.
Yahoo = free
Gmail = free
Windows Live = free
AOL = free
MobileMe = not free
Blackberry = not free
I can live with free services acting up, but if it's something that's being paid for, more than a day or two of severe issues is inexcusable.
And lots of businesses rely on Blackberries; if Apple could get their ducks in a row, they could put a hurt on RIM. Or maybe not, it's the nature of the enterprise, and Apple has learned a valuable lesson.
Yeah, everyone has problems, but ever since Apple has had to move engineers over to the iPhone, they've playing catch-up ever since.
Leopard launch = buggy,
iPhone/Touch FW 2.0 = buggy,
MobileMe launch = buggy.
When you're charging people $99 for e-mail plus, you don't lose e-mail. You don't. Sure, people should back important e-mails, but that sort of defeats "cloud" computing, and IMAP. Apple should back up their stuff too. At least they've giving people an extra month of service.
If MobileMe was free, no one would really care, "oh, it's free! jeeze...".
Except that Gmail is free, like most of Google's other services, while Apple gets paid while they beta test MobileMe, and then find bugs.
Beta testing? While MobileMe is a new name, it's also a revamped .Mac, which has been around for ages. Do you really expect them to slap a BETA sign on it? This is a consumer-oriented service, the average consumer has no idea what beta means in terms of software. All good software is a work in progress.
Also, I've been a gmail user for years and while I like it quite a lot, it's free for a reason: ads. Pretty much everything Apple puts out is completely anti-advertising, which I REALLY appreciate. MobileMe is an example of Apple selling software as a service. Gmail is quite competent for a free email client, but once MobileMe gets its edges smoothed out - its problems are partially caused by the web traffic Apple's servers faced and are still facing from the unprecedented demand for the iPhone 3G - it's going to surpass all the online email competitors I've seen with ease of use thanks to it's implementation of things like SproutCore, which offers a near-desktop like experience within a web browser. Then you factor in it's push contacts, calendar, and email syncing, seamless iWeb publishing, picture/video gallery, and its use of iDisk that basically eliminates the sending of attachments over the internet altogether in a cohesive, easy way.
I can live with free services acting up, but if it's something that's being paid for, more than a day or two of severe issues is inexcusable.
And lots of businesses rely on Blackberries; if Apple could get their ducks in a row, they could put a hurt on RIM. Or maybe not, it's the nature of the enterprise, and Apple has learned a valuable lesson.
Yeah, everyone has problems, but ever since Apple has had to move engineers over to the iPhone, they've playing catch-up ever since.
Leopard launch = buggy,
iPhone/Touch FW 2.0 = buggy,
MobileMe launch = buggy.
When you're charging people $99 for e-mail plus, you don't lose e-mail. You don't. Sure, people should back important e-mails, but that sort of defeats "cloud" computing, and IMAP. Apple should back up their stuff too. At least they've giving people an extra month of service.
If MobileMe was free, no one would really care, "oh, it's free! jeeze...".
Get over this "free" bit. Free has nothing to do with it. If a product is defective, and you rely in it, its the same thing. Google and others only give these so called "free" products to get you in their system, so you can see their ads, from which they make their money. I really don't see the difference. $99 a year ($79 at Amazon) is chump change.
And lots of businesses rely on Blackberries; if Apple could get their ducks in a row, they could put a hurt on RIM. Or maybe not, it's the nature of the enterprise, and Apple has learned a valuable lesson.
Considering the iPhone, which has only been out a year, has already displaced all of Microsoft's Windows Mobile phones and all of Symbian's phones, with the remaining competitor being RIM's established BlackBerry, Apple's obviously doing something right. On the subject of BlackBerrys, you do realize the iPhone now surpasses RIM's so called "enterprise-hardened" phone with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, right? That allows the iPhone to directly access Exchange servers, rather than going through a third party up in Canada, like BlackBerrys do, which has caused a number of outages in the past few months.
Now factor in that the iPhone is still largely being marketed and tailored for the average consumer, while RIM's phones are mainly billed as business phones. It's comical how easily all these smart phone makers have been blind-sided by a 1 year old phone when they've had a multi-year head start.
The iphone 1.0 will always be the worst iphone ever made. Admit it! For those of us who were brave enough to take the plunge on that sweet brushed aluminum piece of art, you know we were just a small group of beta testers in a controlled study. The 3G/2.0 is a potential world-changer and pretty ballsy if you think about it. Marginal, methodical tweaks and improvements are all Apple has to worry about now. I know that necessity drives invention, so it's good to be unsatisfied until perfection is achieved, but seriously....this thing rocks!!!!!!!
Hate on MS all you want but at least they did open betas on their live services.
Don't push it. No one uses live, and Microsoft is even worse mass level fcuk ups. Vista launch and the daylight saving patch of death are just 2 recently.
Considering the iPhone, which has only been out a year, has already displaced all of Microsoft's Windows Mobile phones and all of Symbian's phones, with the remaining competitor being RIM's established BlackBerry, Apple's obviously doing something right. On the subject of BlackBerrys, you do realize the iPhone now surpasses RIM's so called "enterprise-hardened" phone with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, right? That allows the iPhone to directly access Exchange servers, rather than going through a third party up in Canada, like BlackBerrys do, which has caused a number of outages in the past few months.
Now factor in that the iPhone is still largely being marketed and tailored for the average consumer, while RIM's phones are mainly billed as business phones. It's comical how easily all these smart phone makers have been blind-sided by a 1 year old phone when they've had a multi-year head start.
Apple still has to get their service fully operational first, then they can look ahead to RIM and MS. And as far as MS, I only though they cared about the PDA/smartphone market because of Palm, and Palm has long stopped innovating ever since Sony dropped their Clie line.
For myself, I don't have a need for push services yet, and there's just a limit to how "connected" I want to be, and I've never seen the appeal of reading/writing e-mail on small screen (my Nokia does support BB/Exchange services too). Nokia is pretty good, (outside of Att not supporting my phone like 15 minutes after I bought it), and I've never had a problem with Symbian apps (or WinMob on my old Dell X5).
All I really need is calendar syncing support, and that's easy to do between iCal and Outlook via Bluetooth.
I have heard a rumor through engadget, of Symbian and Android merging, and then going open source. Don't think I buy it though.
Apple still has to get their service fully operational first, then they can look ahead to RIM and MS. And as far as MS, I only though they cared about the PDA/smartphone market because of Palm, and Palm has long stopped innovating ever since Sony dropped their Clie line.
Wha? Sorry, I think I phrased things poorly. Apple has already outpaced all smart phones, with RIM's established BlackBerry being the exception. They're passed WinMobile, Symbian, etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by guinness
For myself, I don't have a need for push services yet, and there's just a limit to how "connected" I want to be, and I've never seen the appeal of reading/writing e-mail on small screen (my Nokia does support BB/Exchange services too). Nokia is pretty good, (outside of Att not supporting my phone like 15 minutes after I bought it), and I've never had a problem with Symbian apps (or WinMob on my old Dell X5).
I wasn't talking about what the average consumer wants, but about the enterprise sector. Did you read my post? Not trying to condescend or anything, but nothing you've said is really in response to my comments.
Gmail is a prime example of how it should be rolled out. A controlled flow. Apple wanted v2.0, iPhone 3G and MobileMe to come out as a trifecta of interoperbility but instead it was a perfect storm.
They could have offered parts of the MM service to current .Mac subscribers and/or regulated the free 60 day trial until they had every well tested and under control. Apple should have planned it better to account for the torrent of new users wanting to try out the Push service with their v2.0 firmware.
I completely agree. They should have limited MobileMe service to existing .Mac subscribers until they had worked out the kinks in the transition. Maybe even slowly transitioned the existing .Mac base over a 2-week period to limit any problems that crop up. But trying to launch the whole new service with newly developed web applications, and full PUSH technology, while also transitioning over the existing base of .Mac subscribers and accepting new membership ALL AT ONCE? It's really not hard to imagine why the results turned out the way they did.
An a related note. data loss is never acceptable, but we are not talking about a long established service losing data because it didn't have proper backups, we are talking about the launch of a new, very complex service and a transition of old data to the new platform. And email "data loss" is obviously much less critical than really any other sort since all the data should be able to be resent, although the week delay is a killer for time-sensitive issues.
I understand that MobileMe is not a free service, and that everyone is a paying customer, but people *NEW* to the MobileMe/".Mac" service don't have a lot of room to bitch if they were relying on this service for critical business. You'd have to be CRAZY to rely on a freshly launched, highly complex, untested consumer service for important business email! That would be akin to haphazardly upgrading your only critical production web server to an unreleased alpha version of a future service pack found on a torrent site!
Although, even though I'd highly advise against running critical business email on a consumer email service like .Mac (or GMail for that matter), The *EXISTING* customers of .Mac email that were forced onto this new platform and lost their email access as a result do have a completely legitimate reason to be pissed off and demand some form of compensation - especially since it is a pre-existing for-profit service.
Wha? Sorry, I think I phrased things poorly. Apple has already all smart phones, with RIM's established BlackBerry being the exception. They're passed WinMobile, Symbian, etc.
Symbian still beats Apple worldwide, with around 60% of the market.
If it's the US only, Nokia/SE has hardly any presence, as most carriers only sell the crappiest of flip-phones; in Europe and Asia, their basic are awesome compared to the ones here, and Nokia usually sticks to sending their junk here. A couple million iPhones does look impressive, but worldwide, it's a drop in the bucket compared to Symbian, as Nokia has sold over 100 million.
Symbian still beats Apple worldwide, with around 60% of the market.
If it's the US only, Nokia/SE has hardly any presence, as most carriers only sell the crappiest of flip-phones; in Europe and Asia, their basic are awesome compared to the ones here, and Nokia usually sticks to sending their junk here. A couple million iPhones does look impressive, but worldwide, it's a drop in the bucket compared to Symbian, as Nokia has sold over 100 million.
With Apple making both "smartphones" and subsequently candybar phones more popular Nokia should see an upswing in the US in both those areas.
Quite honestly, it's your fault for relying on a home service for your professional use.
You should have had a backup plan for the switch.
Backup plan? How about not abandoning the old service so quickly!
Is it really that hard to keep multiple email accounts?
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
The truth is that Gmail is a mess, has always been a mess, and likely will always be a mess. It certainly isn't something I would use as an example. If MobileMe is as unreliable, and insecure, as Gmail is still, after all this time, Apple would do well to abandon it!
What you say has not been my general experience with Gmail at all, and I haven't heard of problems of Gmail losing mail, or really problems near the scale that you seem to suggest.
Quote:
Originally Posted by melgross
Get over this "free" bit. Free has nothing to do with it. If a product is defective, and you rely in it, its the same thing. Google and others only give these so called "free" products to get you in their system, so you can see their ads, from which they make their money. I really don't see the difference. $99 a year ($79 at Amazon) is chump change.
I doubt the money from tiny ads on Gmail really compare to what Apple makes with MobileMe. As far as I know, the money comes from clicks, not the impressions.
What you say has not been my general experience with Gmail at all, and I haven't heard of problems of Gmail losing mail, or really problems near the scale that you seem to suggest.
I've never been a fan of the way the Gmail web portal is setup( and thanks to free POP and IMAP I don't have to use it), but I, too, have never had any issues with Gmail.
Well I think everyone can agree with you there ? Apple can't be trusted for business related services.
No business worth their salt would move all their email and calendars to a brand new system that hasnt been fully vetted yet, apple, microsoft or otherwise. It's just...poor business instinct. one day mobileme may be a good choice for businesses, but its foolish to risk money on it.
Has the cost of MobileMe been analyzed in-depth? From time-to-time I've read complaints about .Mac/MobileMe being too costly or that it shoudl be free since other email services are free. I usually don't pay much attention to those posts as they aren't considering the other services offered with Apple's email. By itself, cloud data storage for 10GB generally cost more than $99/year Apple charged for .Mac but it's been some time since I've checked the prices. I do know that Amazon's service looks inexpensive as 20GB of storage is only $3/month (15¢ per GB) in the US, but they also charge 10¢ per GB uploaded and downloaded.
Then there is the push and the automatic backup of your User Account settings, including your Keychaiin, and personal web hosting. Is all this really expensive compared to other services?
Has the cost of MobileMe been analyzed in-depth? From time-to-time I've read complaints about .Mac/MobileMe being too costly or that it shoudl be free since other email services are free. I usually don't pay much attention to those posts as they aren't considering the other services offered with Apple's email. By itself, cloud data storage for 10GB generally cost more than $99/year Apple charged for .Mac but it's been some time since I've checked the prices. I do know that Amazon's service looks inexpensive as 20GB of storage is only $3/month (15¢ per GB) in the US, but they also charge 10¢ per GB uploaded and downloaded.
Then there is the push and the automatic backup of your User Account settings, including your Keychaiin, and personal web hosting. Is all this really expensive compared to other services?
I personally wouldn't know where to start as Apple does offer a lot in one bundle. How much that bundle is worth to a given person really depends on what they actually use, not what they supposedly get but don't use. If you just need email and a small personal web site, you can have your own domain and buy hosting for about $20 a year. The service I use offers plans such that for each $1/mo you spend, you get 1GB storage and 10GB transfer.
Then there's the syncing and some other services, which I am unfamiliar with the details of Apple's service and unaware of what else that might provide anything like it.
I think a lot of different products and services can be used to piece together the equivalent of an alternative, but I don't think anyone else offers a cohesive package that's as simple as Apple's should be.
Considering the iPhone, which has only been out a year, has already displaced all of Microsoft's Windows Mobile phones and all of Symbian's phones, with the remaining competitor being RIM's established BlackBerry, Apple's obviously doing something right. On the subject of BlackBerrys, you do realize the iPhone now surpasses RIM's so called "enterprise-hardened" phone with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, right? That allows the iPhone to directly access Exchange servers, rather than going through a third party up in Canada, like BlackBerrys do, which has caused a number of outages in the past few months.
Now factor in that the iPhone is still largely being marketed and tailored for the average consumer, while RIM's phones are mainly billed as business phones. It's comical how easily all these smart phone makers have been blind-sided by a 1 year old phone when they've had a multi-year head start.
What are you talking about?
MS sold over 20 million Win mobile licenses this past year, and Symbian commands about 50% of all smartphone sales.
RIM has been making good progress in gaining non business sales as well.
Apple hasn't made much of a dent in these companies yet. It's secondary companies that are feeling the heat so far, such as Sony_Ericcson.
Give it another year, and then we will see it happen, as long as Apple can fix their problems with it.
Comments
Gmail has been released quite a while ago. To keep calling it a beta is just a marketing tool. It's a way of avoiding admitting the serious problems it has always had.
Apple will clear this up before too long. They always do.
MSN is in bad shape as well. And look at AOL.
Yahoo mail has its own problems.
When RIM's servers go down, as they do every so often, it's a major problem.
No one is immune.
This is a bad startup problem, that's for sure. But we all know it will be fixed. Will there ways be minor problems cropping up? Yes. Nothing is perfect.
Apple miscalculated. They admitted that already.
Yahoo = free
Gmail = free
Windows Live = free
AOL = free
MobileMe = not free
Blackberry = not free
I can live with free services acting up, but if it's something that's being paid for, more than a day or two of severe issues is inexcusable.
And lots of businesses rely on Blackberries; if Apple could get their ducks in a row, they could put a hurt on RIM. Or maybe not, it's the nature of the enterprise, and Apple has learned a valuable lesson.
Yeah, everyone has problems, but ever since Apple has had to move engineers over to the iPhone, they've playing catch-up ever since.
Leopard launch = buggy,
iPhone/Touch FW 2.0 = buggy,
MobileMe launch = buggy.
When you're charging people $99 for e-mail plus, you don't lose e-mail. You don't. Sure, people should back important e-mails, but that sort of defeats "cloud" computing, and IMAP. Apple should back up their stuff too. At least they've giving people an extra month of service.
If MobileMe was free, no one would really care, "oh, it's free! jeeze...".
Except that Gmail is free, like most of Google's other services, while Apple gets paid while they beta test MobileMe, and then find bugs.
Beta testing? While MobileMe is a new name, it's also a revamped .Mac, which has been around for ages. Do you really expect them to slap a BETA sign on it?
Also, I've been a gmail user for years and while I like it quite a lot, it's free for a reason: ads. Pretty much everything Apple puts out is completely anti-advertising, which I REALLY appreciate. MobileMe is an example of Apple selling software as a service. Gmail is quite competent for a free email client, but once MobileMe gets its edges smoothed out - its problems are partially caused by the web traffic Apple's servers faced and are still facing from the unprecedented demand for the iPhone 3G - it's going to surpass all the online email competitors I've seen with ease of use thanks to it's implementation of things like SproutCore, which offers a near-desktop like experience within a web browser. Then you factor in it's push contacts, calendar, and email syncing, seamless iWeb publishing, picture/video gallery, and its use of iDisk that basically eliminates the sending of attachments over the internet altogether in a cohesive, easy way.
Yahoo = free
Gmail = free
Windows Live = free
AOL = free
MobileMe = not free
Blackberry = not free
I can live with free services acting up, but if it's something that's being paid for, more than a day or two of severe issues is inexcusable.
And lots of businesses rely on Blackberries; if Apple could get their ducks in a row, they could put a hurt on RIM. Or maybe not, it's the nature of the enterprise, and Apple has learned a valuable lesson.
Yeah, everyone has problems, but ever since Apple has had to move engineers over to the iPhone, they've playing catch-up ever since.
Leopard launch = buggy,
iPhone/Touch FW 2.0 = buggy,
MobileMe launch = buggy.
When you're charging people $99 for e-mail plus, you don't lose e-mail. You don't. Sure, people should back important e-mails, but that sort of defeats "cloud" computing, and IMAP. Apple should back up their stuff too. At least they've giving people an extra month of service.
If MobileMe was free, no one would really care, "oh, it's free! jeeze...".
Get over this "free" bit. Free has nothing to do with it. If a product is defective, and you rely in it, its the same thing. Google and others only give these so called "free" products to get you in their system, so you can see their ads, from which they make their money. I really don't see the difference. $99 a year ($79 at Amazon) is chump change.
And, yes, they would care, even if it were free
jeeze...
1. MobileMe
2. iPhone 3G
3. iPhone 2.0 software
4. Apps Store
Um, HELLOO?!?! Is anybody THINKING at Apple these days?
And lots of businesses rely on Blackberries; if Apple could get their ducks in a row, they could put a hurt on RIM. Or maybe not, it's the nature of the enterprise, and Apple has learned a valuable lesson.
Considering the iPhone, which has only been out a year, has already displaced all of Microsoft's Windows Mobile phones and all of Symbian's phones, with the remaining competitor being RIM's established BlackBerry, Apple's obviously doing something right. On the subject of BlackBerrys, you do realize the iPhone now surpasses RIM's so called "enterprise-hardened" phone with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, right? That allows the iPhone to directly access Exchange servers, rather than going through a third party up in Canada, like BlackBerrys do, which has caused a number of outages in the past few months.
Now factor in that the iPhone is still largely being marketed and tailored for the average consumer, while RIM's phones are mainly billed as business phones.
Hate on MS all you want but at least they did open betas on their live services.
Don't push it. No one uses live, and Microsoft is even worse mass level fcuk ups. Vista launch and the daylight saving patch of death are just 2 recently.
Considering the iPhone, which has only been out a year, has already displaced all of Microsoft's Windows Mobile phones and all of Symbian's phones, with the remaining competitor being RIM's established BlackBerry, Apple's obviously doing something right. On the subject of BlackBerrys, you do realize the iPhone now surpasses RIM's so called "enterprise-hardened" phone with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, right? That allows the iPhone to directly access Exchange servers, rather than going through a third party up in Canada, like BlackBerrys do, which has caused a number of outages in the past few months.
Now factor in that the iPhone is still largely being marketed and tailored for the average consumer, while RIM's phones are mainly billed as business phones.
Apple still has to get their service fully operational first, then they can look ahead to RIM and MS. And as far as MS, I only though they cared about the PDA/smartphone market because of Palm, and Palm has long stopped innovating ever since Sony dropped their Clie line.
For myself, I don't have a need for push services yet, and there's just a limit to how "connected" I want to be, and I've never seen the appeal of reading/writing e-mail on small screen (my Nokia does support BB/Exchange services too). Nokia is pretty good, (outside of Att not supporting my phone like 15 minutes after I bought it), and I've never had a problem with Symbian apps (or WinMob on my old Dell X5).
All I really need is calendar syncing support, and that's easy to do between iCal and Outlook via Bluetooth.
I have heard a rumor through engadget, of Symbian and Android merging, and then going open source. Don't think I buy it though.
Apple still has to get their service fully operational first, then they can look ahead to RIM and MS. And as far as MS, I only though they cared about the PDA/smartphone market because of Palm, and Palm has long stopped innovating ever since Sony dropped their Clie line.
Wha?
For myself, I don't have a need for push services yet, and there's just a limit to how "connected" I want to be, and I've never seen the appeal of reading/writing e-mail on small screen (my Nokia does support BB/Exchange services too). Nokia is pretty good, (outside of Att not supporting my phone like 15 minutes after I bought it), and I've never had a problem with Symbian apps (or WinMob on my old Dell X5).
I wasn't talking about what the average consumer wants, but about the enterprise sector. Did you read my post? Not trying to condescend or anything, but nothing you've said is really in response to my comments.
Gmail is a prime example of how it should be rolled out. A controlled flow. Apple wanted v2.0, iPhone 3G and MobileMe to come out as a trifecta of interoperbility but instead it was a perfect storm.
They could have offered parts of the MM service to current .Mac subscribers and/or regulated the free 60 day trial until they had every well tested and under control. Apple should have planned it better to account for the torrent of new users wanting to try out the Push service with their v2.0 firmware.
I completely agree. They should have limited MobileMe service to existing .Mac subscribers until they had worked out the kinks in the transition. Maybe even slowly transitioned the existing .Mac base over a 2-week period to limit any problems that crop up. But trying to launch the whole new service with newly developed web applications, and full PUSH technology, while also transitioning over the existing base of .Mac subscribers and accepting new membership ALL AT ONCE? It's really not hard to imagine why the results turned out the way they did.
An a related note. data loss is never acceptable, but we are not talking about a long established service losing data because it didn't have proper backups, we are talking about the launch of a new, very complex service and a transition of old data to the new platform. And email "data loss" is obviously much less critical than really any other sort since all the data should be able to be resent, although the week delay is a killer for time-sensitive issues.
I understand that MobileMe is not a free service, and that everyone is a paying customer, but people *NEW* to the MobileMe/".Mac" service don't have a lot of room to bitch if they were relying on this service for critical business. You'd have to be CRAZY to rely on a freshly launched, highly complex, untested consumer service for important business email! That would be akin to haphazardly upgrading your only critical production web server to an unreleased alpha version of a future service pack found on a torrent site!
Although, even though I'd highly advise against running critical business email on a consumer email service like .Mac (or GMail for that matter), The *EXISTING* customers of .Mac email that were forced onto this new platform and lost their email access as a result do have a completely legitimate reason to be pissed off and demand some form of compensation - especially since it is a pre-existing for-profit service.
Wha?
Symbian still beats Apple worldwide, with around 60% of the market.
If it's the US only, Nokia/SE has hardly any presence, as most carriers only sell the crappiest of flip-phones; in Europe and Asia, their basic are awesome compared to the ones here, and Nokia usually sticks to sending their junk here. A couple million iPhones does look impressive, but worldwide, it's a drop in the bucket compared to Symbian, as Nokia has sold over 100 million.
Symbian still beats Apple worldwide, with around 60% of the market.
If it's the US only, Nokia/SE has hardly any presence, as most carriers only sell the crappiest of flip-phones; in Europe and Asia, their basic are awesome compared to the ones here, and Nokia usually sticks to sending their junk here. A couple million iPhones does look impressive, but worldwide, it's a drop in the bucket compared to Symbian, as Nokia has sold over 100 million.
With Apple making both "smartphones" and subsequently candybar phones more popular Nokia should see an upswing in the US in both those areas.
Quite honestly, it's your fault for relying on a home service for your professional use.
You should have had a backup plan for the switch.
Backup plan? How about not abandoning the old service so quickly!
Is it really that hard to keep multiple email accounts?
The truth is that Gmail is a mess, has always been a mess, and likely will always be a mess. It certainly isn't something I would use as an example. If MobileMe is as unreliable, and insecure, as Gmail is still, after all this time, Apple would do well to abandon it!
What you say has not been my general experience with Gmail at all, and I haven't heard of problems of Gmail losing mail, or really problems near the scale that you seem to suggest.
Get over this "free" bit. Free has nothing to do with it. If a product is defective, and you rely in it, its the same thing. Google and others only give these so called "free" products to get you in their system, so you can see their ads, from which they make their money. I really don't see the difference. $99 a year ($79 at Amazon) is chump change.
I doubt the money from tiny ads on Gmail really compare to what Apple makes with MobileMe. As far as I know, the money comes from clicks, not the impressions.
What you say has not been my general experience with Gmail at all, and I haven't heard of problems of Gmail losing mail, or really problems near the scale that you seem to suggest.
I've never been a fan of the way the Gmail web portal is setup( and thanks to free POP and IMAP I don't have to use it), but I, too, have never had any issues with Gmail.
Well I think everyone can agree with you there ? Apple can't be trusted for business related services.
No business worth their salt would move all their email and calendars to a brand new system that hasnt been fully vetted yet, apple, microsoft or otherwise. It's just...poor business instinct. one day mobileme may be a good choice for businesses, but its foolish to risk money on it.
Then there is the push and the automatic backup of your User Account settings, including your Keychaiin, and personal web hosting. Is all this really expensive compared to other services?
Has the cost of MobileMe been analyzed in-depth? From time-to-time I've read complaints about .Mac/MobileMe being too costly or that it shoudl be free since other email services are free. I usually don't pay much attention to those posts as they aren't considering the other services offered with Apple's email. By itself, cloud data storage for 10GB generally cost more than $99/year Apple charged for .Mac but it's been some time since I've checked the prices. I do know that Amazon's service looks inexpensive as 20GB of storage is only $3/month (15¢ per GB) in the US, but they also charge 10¢ per GB uploaded and downloaded.
Then there is the push and the automatic backup of your User Account settings, including your Keychaiin, and personal web hosting. Is all this really expensive compared to other services?
I personally wouldn't know where to start as Apple does offer a lot in one bundle. How much that bundle is worth to a given person really depends on what they actually use, not what they supposedly get but don't use. If you just need email and a small personal web site, you can have your own domain and buy hosting for about $20 a year. The service I use offers plans such that for each $1/mo you spend, you get 1GB storage and 10GB transfer.
Then there's the syncing and some other services, which I am unfamiliar with the details of Apple's service and unaware of what else that might provide anything like it.
I think a lot of different products and services can be used to piece together the equivalent of an alternative, but I don't think anyone else offers a cohesive package that's as simple as Apple's should be.
Considering the iPhone, which has only been out a year, has already displaced all of Microsoft's Windows Mobile phones and all of Symbian's phones, with the remaining competitor being RIM's established BlackBerry, Apple's obviously doing something right. On the subject of BlackBerrys, you do realize the iPhone now surpasses RIM's so called "enterprise-hardened" phone with Apple's licensing of ActiveSync, right? That allows the iPhone to directly access Exchange servers, rather than going through a third party up in Canada, like BlackBerrys do, which has caused a number of outages in the past few months.
Now factor in that the iPhone is still largely being marketed and tailored for the average consumer, while RIM's phones are mainly billed as business phones.
What are you talking about?
MS sold over 20 million Win mobile licenses this past year, and Symbian commands about 50% of all smartphone sales.
RIM has been making good progress in gaining non business sales as well.
Apple hasn't made much of a dent in these companies yet. It's secondary companies that are feeling the heat so far, such as Sony_Ericcson.
Give it another year, and then we will see it happen, as long as Apple can fix their problems with it.