Harvard Business Publishing

In my opinion, it's too early to say that Apple does or doesn't suck at services. As the author of the article pointed out: "Maybe it wasn't such a hot idea for Apple to launch four enormously complex initiatives — the iPhone 3G, the App Store, the iPhone 2.0 software update and MobileMe — all on the same day."

Umair, have you ever posted about Apple's strategy? I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on them as a company (not just MobileMe). They seem like an interesting case study in that many of their products and services are wildly popular, yet also closed and, some might say, evil. What's the difference, for example, between Facebook Apps and iPhone Apps from a strategic perspective?

Given the success of iTunes, it would be hard to make a case that Apple is generically bad at services.

Mobil Me is not a new service. It is a rebranding and software upgrade for dot Mac. I've had dot Mac for more than a year and it worked very well (not perfectly but very well).

I would really like to see options for a rich set of functionality like the Webex Web Office integrated into this offering

By they way... Isn't "sticking to one's knitting" diametrically opposed to the concept of innovation?

I was amazed that Apple didn't just make a deal with Google to kill dotMac (.Mac) and move all the services into Google's cloud, with a few enhancements specifically for Apple.

Google has clearly made adjustments in their web services for Apple, from making their web properties function more fully with the Safari browser to developing iPhone-specific versions of some of their cloud services.

The "new" stuff in MobileMe could have been developed quickly by Google as add-ons to other services. The transition might have been rougher, but the resulting services would have been smoother.

I bought dotMac primarily for syncing services to get bookmarks and passwords and other elements moved from one Mac to another (home to work and back). But other tools have arrived (mostly for Firefox) that have made much of dotMac or MobileMe obsolete for me.

But -- and this is a big one -- had Apple done the deed with Google on this front, I would have doubled-down my commitment. As it stands, Apple has flubbed this implementation and I'm not likely to renew.

iTunes, by comparison, runs quite well.

iTunes is an example where they had to build a better mousetrap and did so.

MobileMe is one where they thought they could do better than the existing cloud computing services market, but have failed.

Seems like you need to know where the market opportunities really are and spend your money there for differentiation.

I agree with John. Apple would have been much better served cutting a deal with Google. They have made deals with Facebook, Flickr, Google, AT&T. Apple is good at software, interfaces, and hardware. Google is good at web services that scale. Even Steve Jobs said at the D5 Conference that they partnered with Google on stuff like maps because Google provided a great backend service and Apple provided a great frontend software interface on the iPhone.

iCal, Address Book, Mail and iPhone are all great. Wouldn't it be even better rather than having to worry about set up I could just put in my one Google ID and password and all my contacts, calendars, mail all sync and push perfectly to my iPhone and Mac apps just like MobileMe but free, quicker, and more reliable. I don't really trust Google but they get the job done all for free. If MobileMe was significantly better then I would pay the $99 a year, until then I will stick with Google Sync, CalDAV, Gmail IMAP, Flickr, and Dropbox.