Apple Needs .Mac for Windows

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Not all of the features, but enought to get people started on the switch. A .Mac email would be a great start, especially if it could act as an exchange client like it does in Panther (I think.) A simple backup client for Word files, transfering email, address books, bookmarks, switcher things.



One big advertisement that people pay for. Get them hooked on the best feature of .Mac: the premise of being non-computer centric. That is, they can have all of this stuff separate from their computer, and on any computer they sit at. So users will get used to having their hoome stuff available at work and vice versa. Once the users get used to being user-centric, rather than computer centric, the jump to the Mac would be so much easier. They'll 'feel' how the stuff they do isn't tied to the machine.



What's the cheapest/easiest and most important pieces of .Mac to convert?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 8
    Probably the email and bookmark syncing. I don't think that those two are worth paying a whole lot for, though.
  • Reply 2 of 8
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    I don't know. An email/imap account that survives different ISPs, jobs, machines, whatever, is a nice feature. Also, a backup that just stores all of your word docs (and email?) would be a really nice feature too. There's a lot of simple things they could do to entice users. Maybe a simple homepage, with some features withheld.



    Once they use the relatively few features you show them what .Mac does on a Mac. iSync. You can sync their bookmarks, but advertise that with a Mac you can sync your calendars and contacts to your iPod, phone, everywhere.



    My thought is give a few really useful but extremely cheap to produce applications so Apple could put very little up front and just add customers to the .Mac paying fanbase. The ITMS was probably expensive to build for Windows, but it has a real chance at a huge return. With .Mac I'd say make a product that's inexpensive to produce so Apple didn't have to put much R&D into the project.
  • Reply 3 of 8
    $100 is overpriced for what the service offers. I wouldn't be paying it except my wife loves how easy it is to post pictures from iPhoto to Homepage. I just hope Apple adds something I find more worthwhile for my money...
  • Reply 4 of 8
    kickahakickaha Posts: 8,760member
    The new improved Backup is worth at least $30 to me. Backup to optical media or, now with 10.3, other hard drives. Considering that Retrospect Express is $70, and has a gawdawful interface, this isn't bad at all.
  • Reply 5 of 8
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    A simple Backup to iDisk only with plugs for the full Mac service would be good. Maybe they couldn't charge $100, but like iTunes is an ad for Mac services, a .Mac Trojan Horse would be good advertisement too.
  • Reply 6 of 8
    Quote:

    Originally posted by bunge

    A simple Backup to iDisk only with plugs for the full Mac service would be good. Maybe they couldn't charge $100, but like iTunes is an ad for Mac services, a .Mac Trojan Horse would be good advertisement too.



    Yeah, it'd be nice, but you started off the thread asking what would quickest and easiest for them to offer WIndows users. Email and bookmarking syncing are those two.
  • Reply 7 of 8
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by penseive

    Yeah, it'd be nice, but you started off the thread asking what would quickest and easiest for them to offer WIndows users. Email and bookmarking syncing are those two.



    I thought backup would be easy too. I mean, just a simple search of the harddrive for .Doc (or watever extensions they choose) and copy them to the iDisk. I could probably build that app in 10 minutes, and I haven't programmed in years.



    My thinking is to help Windows users extract themselves from any specific machine so they could more easily move. Backup would be kind of necessary for that.



    The things that I wouldn't include unless you were on a Mac would be things like the blogger, or homepage, or I don't know.
  • Reply 8 of 8
    cubistcubist Posts: 954member
    iSync has to be ported to Windows and work with Outlook. bunge is right, this service is probably coming. Apple is reaching out to save PC users from the hostile Windows world.
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