Mossberg Sends MobileMe Back to the Drawing Board
2:26 am, July 24th, 2008, Lonnie Lazar
Walter Mossberg, the Dean of MSM technology writers, has pronounced MobileMe “way too ragged” to be considered reliable.
His frank and unsentimental review of Apple’s web services product goes beyond the launch difficulties that have kept Apple’s support forums humming with angry subscribers and which prompted the company to extend members’ $100 annual subscriptions by 30 days last week. Citing his experience in extensive testing and interaction with Apple’s support team, Mossberg chronicles a list of half a dozen problems that make the service tedious, sluggish and unpredictable.
Apple engineers blame Microsoft Outlook quirks for issues related to calendar and address book synching and say they are working on fixes for other problems.
Posted by Lonnie Lazar in Customer Services, Software | Comment on this article
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Hello,
Well IMHO this is a real issue for Apple, because many people came to Apple first time, and they got not so good experience – actually a crappy service for 100$! Shame on you Apple! Why it happened, because they tried to push the service to the market as quickly as possible without solid preparation and at least series of real heavy loaded tests. Don’t do it again.
Krzysztof, on July 24th, 2008 at 2:36 am
It is not just on Outlook issue. My MacBook syncs with MobileMe and I often don’t get email for hours. And the calendar … really slow. I do get my email on the iPhone pretty fast. But that is not enough. Also … I use a PC at work with Internet Explorer and it’s not usable at all. Really disappointing. Why keep this service when I can’t even get into my stuff at work??
Mary Hunt, on July 24th, 2008 at 4:26 am
I do not have Outlook or anything Microsoft. My calendar does not sync, I look at my accounts in my Address book, my iPhone, my MobileMe and they’re ALL different. Some changes take, some don’t. First major problem with Apple in years. Sad.
rON, on July 24th, 2008 at 5:33 am
might be just me but mobileme works fine for me. everything about it. there was that no go at the beginning for a day but after that its been great. in fact, it seems to be going smoother and faster than .mac. idisk for sure is super fast now. i have 3 macs at home all sync’d up without any problems.
BUT maybe i am the exception.
i would like to know. of the people having troubles, are you using pcs? is it your geographical area? (toronto here)
Peruchito, on July 24th, 2008 at 5:55 am
Things work fine for me as well. But I’m not using Outlook so that might make a difference. I work with two people who are using Outlook and syncing with work e-mail with no problems.
Prospero, on July 24th, 2008 at 6:07 am
I’ve been put out of service since 7 days because of MobileMe.
I have no email service whatsoever. Apple claims that 1% of the users are facing this problem, but if you look about their discussion group there is hardly questions other then “When is service going to be restored???”.
If it’s really only 1% then it’s about 20.000-30.000 customers around the world.
The only excuse that I heard is that the service is not “Enterprise level”…uhm…so what? Everyone depends on email nowadays!
Any IT pro’s speak up: A mail server down for a whole week? How the heck is that even possible?
Max Space, on July 24th, 2008 at 7:48 am
I’m not sure how to interpret:
“Apple engineers blame Microsoft Outlook quirks…and say they are working on fixes for other problems.”
It’s the word “other” I’m struggling with. Does this suggest Apple’s saying the Outlook problems aren’t ‘their’ problem, and they’re working on ‘other’ issues? I certainly hope not as the problems Apple customers are having syncing to Outlook ARE Apple’s problems.
I’m having a nightmare experience trying to sync my iPhone with my Outlook calendar. Not only does data not sync properly but I’m actually losing data too! It’s the fist time that I’ve missed meetings and other commitments because of unreliable technology.
So many of us are loyal, long time Apple customers who, for the first time, feel betrayed.
Anthony_in_SF, on July 24th, 2008 at 8:01 am
maybe thats it. i am not trying to sync with any third party softwares. all apple software, mail, ical etc.
Peruchito, on July 24th, 2008 at 9:47 am
They should make iDisk about %1000 faster and more reliable while they’re at it. Uploading to the iDisk via Transmit is fast and easy, yet using the “integrated” desktop path from Apple is painfully slow (when it doesn’t fail).
Camperton, on July 24th, 2008 at 2:06 pm
The simple fact of the matter is they should have had this shit worked out BEFORE they launched the new service. All they’ve accomplished is pissing people off and garnering millions in bad publicity in the process.
Camperton, on July 24th, 2008 at 2:08 pm
There might be a problem with Outlook but the fact of the matter is the whole MobileMe system has one big problem.
It’s unreliable and crap. Apple shouldn’t even be charging users a penny until the whole mess is properly fixed.
As for 1% of users with problems. I think not. I think it’s 1% of users that don’t have problems.
Everyone that I communicate with that have the service has problems in one form or another.
Now Apple, get off your high horse and fix this.
Ian, on July 24th, 2008 at 5:09 pm
“They should make iDisk about %1000 faster and more reliable while they’re at it. Uploading to the iDisk via Transmit is fast and easy, yet using the “integrated†desktop path from Apple is painfully slow (when it doesn’t fail).”
it actually goes faster than transmit for me…
what is going on?? am i the only one in which mobileme works perfect and is better – faster than .mac??
Peruchito, on July 25th, 2008 at 7:07 am