MobileMe may become free!

[NineSwords]

According to MacDailyNews the MobileMe Service may become free of charge "sooner than later...".

I really liked MobileMe for my first year of iPhone ownership and with the addition of the FindMyiPhone feature this is a interesting service, but the asking price of $99 a year is simply to high when most of the services can be had for free from the likes of Google and Microsoft.

Anyway. When MobileMe goes free I switch directly.

Source (http://www.macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/rumor_apple_to_make_mobileme_free/)

[madam_octa]

Wow, I've been thinking of getting MobileMe account for a while now, but I guess I'll wait to see what will happen with this free thing

[shigzeo]

Well, after paying the 60$ or whatever it is, I feel stupid. But I suppose it is good news. The sad truth? I don't really use it!

[NineSwords]

I guess it's $99. Or did you get some sort of promo?

[ChiffaN]

I never got the hang of why MobileMe is worth having at all. The only feature that may be worth having is the find my phone. All of the others are easily replaced by google sync (caledar, contacts, push mail) and dropbox (for the file sharing)

[shigzeo]

My promo is... the fact that I forgot it was more than that.... bugger.

[NineSwords]

You're right. For the iPhone alone Mobile.me's only feature you can't replace is the find and remote wipe. With these two it's a double edged sword. You pay for it in the hopes to never have to use them. But when you actually need them it's good they're there and it's worth the money. But since it's such a "just in case" feature it's hard to have it as a selling point. Whereas a free mobile.me would turn this feature into a hard selling point over other smartphones.

Where Mobile.me really shines is in conjunction with a Mac (and iPhone). While there are still other solutions available (i.e. VNC solutions, etc.) but it's the simplicity that makes it so great. With just one single login (and setup) you're syncing mails, calendar entries, remote controlling your Mac, chatting with encryption, hosting your webside and picture galleries, etc.

It's implementation in the Apple suite of programs is another big point. iPhone only users are set with googles exchange service and dropbox, but this still needs some more setup work then simply entering your mobile.me login once. It's in tune with the Apple credo that you're grandmother should be able to work with it.