Apple is telling suppliers that they will no longer be selling MobileMe subscriptions in preparation for a launch of a new, free and radically overhauled version of the service launching next month.
According to iLounge, Apple is suggesting that suppliers should recommend that customers sign up for the 60-day MobileMe trial to cover the gap between now and the new MobileMe’s launch.
The new MobileMe sounds like it will be a different product than the current version, as Apple will allegedly be supporting current MobileMe subscribers for a year after the new MobileMe becomes available.
Rumors and reports have suggested that MobileMe will be radically revamped this year to function as a cloud-based media locker. Steve Jobs said late last year that there were major changes ahead for MobileMe in 2011, and recent reports have said that Apple’s cloud-ambitions come in the form of a “locker” service for music and movies as opposed to a streaming system like Spotify, so as not to undermine Apple’s lucrative downloads business.
Between Apple removing any ability to pay for MobileMe and rumors of an imminent relaunch, it’s looking very good at this point that iTunes will enter the cloud next month in one way or another.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
40 responses to “Report: Apple To Relaunch MobileMe Next Month”
hmmmm….my subscription for mobileme just re-upped last month. i wonder what i will get for being a paying customer that the free version won’t have.
Me too!
Or if it’s completely free, do we get some sort of rebate? I just re-upped in January.
My wife’s MobileMe account expired yesterday, and after buying a breand new MBP17 and attempting to renew on the process, after a week of going over and over, using the chat support and calling Apple, I just can’t renew it, and they don’t know what to tell me. I’ve just hung up the phone with them and they said they’d call me back before the end of the day to give me a definitive answer.
All points towards: THEY ARE CLEARLY WORKING ON SOMETHING HERE…
My sub just expired last week and I was charged on 3.11 – perfect.
My mobile me subscription just got auto re-newed two days ago (this past tuesday)!
My account doesn’t expire until the end of June. For a moment there I was worried about timing because I though my account was up for renewal in April.
I hope it goes free. It is hard to justify now as a paid service when msn and google offer the same set of features for free. The only feature I don’t see replicated is the ability to log into Time Capsule remotely, which isn’t a concern for most. Push email, contacts, and calendar and storage, including photo management and rudimentary websites are available on google and msn.
I hope they also rebrand the service. Something like AirSpace would be a lot more appropriate.
Wish that worked. My Time Capsule does show up in my Finder sidebar, but I can never access it.
I have 300 days remaining. so they better have something in return for us!
You mean ‘offer the same services for no cash, but we have to put up with ads everywhere’
Great! I re-upped the 14th of this month. Timing is everything.
I like the locker idea…kind of like whispersync? Download the songs you want on your device since users aren’t always in a 3G/streaming conducive location but have a worry free back up. It wouldn’t take *that* much more space compared to the itunes store. Apple already has the songs. All you’d need is a way to communicate which songs you’ve bought and can download from the “archive”–aka locker. That’s pretty slick.
Awesome!
I hope Apple either refund us paid clients or rebate on buying Apple products at least!
I use MobileMe to keep all my devices in sync. I rely on iCal, iBooks, AddressBook, and more on a daily basis. The syncing across all of my devices is transparent and convenient. I’m aware you can do similar syncing with Google’s free services, however there are more benefits for Mac users who take advantage of MobileMe syncing. The only thing I am concerned with is that they retain those features. As for additional features, that’s fine . . . I just don’t want the ‘existing’ features to be removed.
That stinks. Maybe there is a setting in your router prohibiting you from accessing your home network?
:-)
Good that I waited for 3 years. I knew some day it had to be free!! :) Apple also has to give me a BBM equivalent for my iPhone. Not interested in wasting money on Whatsapp Messenger.