Okay Geek Farm
Some iOS users will get MobileMe for Free - Some crazy speculations
Brandon Davenport
MobileMe overall is a great service… it’s a very expensive service, but it’s really good. For years, people have been paying $99/year for MobileMe which includes things like Mail, Cloud Storage and Photo sharing — but recently, a piece of code found in the iOS 4.2.1 GM seeded to developers last week showed that Apple is planning to create a free tier of MobileMe.
The above code found by MacRumors shows clearly that there is an option for users to create a free MobileMe account. The first 6 lines of code are interesting because they clearly say “the maximum number of free accounts have been activated”, and the key word there is “free”. Why would Apple be offering their $99/year service for free, even though it’s limited? Here’s some reasons why…
Why Apple could be offering MobileMe for free
iTunes Cloud Service — Apple could be preparing for the release of their rumored iTunes cloud music service. Apple could allow users to access their music, email, photos and files from within the browser, through MobileMe.
Ping Integration with MobileMe — Obviously, Apple is trying to get Ping on it’s feet. The new social network service from Apple isn’t doing so well, namely because you need iTunes to access it - so if you could access Ping, email and everything else within the browser, this makes MobileMe a very compelling product - especially when you throw a cloud music service into the mix.
Killing iTunes all together — If Apple was to create a Cloud hosted music service, you could essentially do everything you need to do (Ping, Podcasts, Music, Videos…) within your browser, and a desktop app would no longer be needed.
Jumping into the Social Network band-wagon — This is the craziest of our speculations. Facebook is planning to launch an email service and Twitter has seriously taken strides in improving their service. Apple seems to have some interest in the social networking scene (they started one called Ping), and if they were to launch a media oriented social network called “MobileMe” (or Ping) with the abilities of email, photo storage, file storage and contacts along with the ability to purchase music and download podcasts - this could tie everything together into one big piece of delicious iPie, and startle a lot of the competition in many markets (Gmail, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace).
Do you have any ideas what Apple is planning? - Leave a Comment!
