Apple's Jobs says oops on MobileMe launch

Apple CEO Steve Jobs admitted it was a "mistake" to roll out the company's MobileMe service at the same time it launched the iPhone 3G and other big products, tech news site Ars Technica reported late Monday.

Ars Technica cited an internal memo sent by Jobs to employees that acknowledged MobileMe had flaws and was released too soon. In the memo, Jobs said the launch of the service could have been handled better, the article said. He also acknowledged the service was "not up to Apple's standards." And he said the individual MobileMe services could have been launched slowly instead of all at once.

"It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store," Jobs said in the e-mail, according to Ars Technica. "We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence."

MobileMe is the next evolution of Apple's .Mac service. It's essentially a cloud storage solution that allows subscribers to synchronize e-mail, calendars, contacts, photos, Safari bookmarks, Dashboard widgets, and more, among Macs, the iPhone, and the iPod Touch. It allows for 20GB of storage on Apple's servers, and it even cooperates with Outlook on Windows computers. Because it is Web based, subscribers can access the online applications from any Web browser.

But from its launch on July 10, MobileMe had problems. Most notably subscribers had trouble accessing the site, and some even lost e-mail.

In a blog started by Apple to keep subscribers up to date on the status of MobileMe, the company acknowledged that some people lost 10 percent of their e-mail between July 16 and July 18 during the height of the outage.

That said, Apple asserts that only 1 percent of MobileMe users were affected by the e-mail issues, which were apparently caused by a "serious problem with one of our mail servers," according to the Apple blog.

MobileMe subscribers also had problems accessing calendars and contact information, which was caused by a misjudgment in demand, according to the Apple blog.

In this most recent memo to employees, Jobs urged them to learn from the mistakes and move on.

"The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services," Jobs was quoted as saying in the memo. "And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year."

[livecrunch]

That leaked email that everybody was talking about wasn't like "secret". That email was sent to everyone especially to insiders who like to talk about stuff. Anyways great post Marguerite.
I'll re-blog my thoughts at http://www.livecrunch.com

[littleddy]

What? This article's been out for a whole hour and still no Appleworms have commented to talk about how much better even a crippled Apple product is than anything ever released by any other company EVAR!!!!!?

[Sezna]

A very common problem where software shops try to do more than one major rollout in one day. BAD idea. Most often than not, everything goes wrong, everyone is pulling an all-nighter, and then walks away with a generally bad experience. Don't do it - none of you. ONE rollout at a time. Break it up into pieces. You'll live longer.

[joetesta70]

APPLE LEARNING IT CAN'T SCALE. Let's face it, Apple is great at making proprietary products that look cool and cost a bundle, but they are fundamentally a consumer products company. They're learnign that it takes more than just cool design to roll out services that scale - you need to hire and coordinate lots of smart people not just a few.

That's why Apple will stay at 2-3% marketshare.

[The_happy_switcher]

In the same way that Microsoft scaled Vista successfully, right?

[JimDog1]

Yeah, Joe - they'll stay at 2-3%. Even though they are currently at about 10% and growing daily.

[compudoc318]

currently at 10%. b.s. and how many apple owners also own pc's for gaming, work and other lack of programs, or they have boot camp to use windows to get things done...... And Vista is fine, been using it since day one on 5 computers, and I work in I.T. and do computer repair on the side and I've seen very few real vista problems. That being said, apple is a good computer for art, video and other things, but the software for them is limited. And yes, i own a mac as well, and like it, even married a mac tech, but guess what, she uses boot camp and a pc as well to get done what an apple wont do.

[johnqh]

The problem is not just the multiple rollout.

Apple is a hardware and software company. Yes, iTunes is internet-based, but it is a glorified website embedded in an application. MobileMe, on the other hand, involves much more than that.

I would almost bet that even if Apple release MobileMe later, it would still be a mess, simply because that's the first time Apple releases a big internet service like this. However, the benefit of releasing separately is that Apple would be concentrating the effort on it instead of dividing attention to all the other things.

[mjkphoto]

I'm lucky I don't rely solely on MobileMe. I have a separate email account for my business and use MobileMe for most of my "Apple" related email needs, such as iTunes and posts like this. But after the MobileMe disaster, I'm rethinking whether to renew my subscription.

We were supposed to get an extra month credit because of the disastrous launch, but my account still shows the original September renewal date. Now Mr. Jobs states that Apple will "press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year." If I were to wait until the end of the year for the service to work, I would have to renew for another year. That would mean potentially paying for months of service that falls below Apple standards! Is that fair?

If Apple truly cared about its loyal customers, it would provide a credit for every day MobileMe is not up to "Apple standards." If Apple truly cared about its loyal customers, I wouldn't have to renew my MobileMe account until the service is deemed something Apple can be proud of. After all, Apple messed this up!

While it wasn't critical to my business, I used and relied on .Mac features that are now gone, such as iCards and Homepages. So now Steve Jobs wants me to continue to pay for a lame service just because he says it will be up to standards by the end of the year?

Give me an opportunity to see MobileMe as it was intended before I renew. That is the right thing to do. Apple, unfortunately, doesn't often do the right thing... just the Apple thing.

[sroussey]

They lost half my email, and when they announced that they were extending the service for an extra 30 days, they didn't offer it to me. Did they to anyone?

[AppleSuxLeo]

Want to see "the cloud" done right ? Look at Live Mesh by MSFT. It makes MobileMe look like an amateurish try by a company used to pumping out iPods.
Better yet , listen to Leo LaPorte rave about how good Live Mesh is...by a guy who usually PANS anything made by MSFT.
http://thisweekintech.com/ww70

[Tuco998]

I just checked my account and did receive the 30-day extension.

[Perry_Clease]

"they have boot camp to use windows to get things done."

Get what things done?

[MacSmiley]

While Apple is fixing its mistakes and bugs, now would be a good time to restore customer goodwill by reinstating the terminated services that DID work.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/macsmiley/2652541101/


BRING BACK APPLE iCARDS!

http://homepage.mac.com/mac.zooks/.Pictures/bryn.png

Petitions:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/06291970/petition.html

http://www.petitiononline.com/ic110608/petition.html

Adding a MobileMe category to Apple's feedback page would be a nice touch, too, by the way, since Apple deleted the .Mac category.

[cdtphilpot]

Mobile Me works for me. I love how a bunch of losers who couldn't do any better at running a company than the executives of Freddie Mac, can sit here and torpedo a company for trying to do something and saying hey we're sorry when they mess up. What did Microsoft do for you when they released that abomination called Windows Vista, NOTHING!

[make_or_break]

Ahh...we wondered when one of your kind would finally make an appearance.

[jef5623]

i was expecting a much better entry into the 7th age of computing from Apple, but it proved that it was too hot for them to handle.

[FoieGuy]

MobileMe still has at least one critical problem. My account is due to expire soon but MobileMe insists my credit card information is not valid (even though it is the same credit that I used to originally pay for the service and that I use almost daily in iTunes to make purchases.) The screen you can use to update credit card information just hangs. The only way to get support from Apple is through a "chat" service that I've spent hours waiting for before anyone responds. And after trying all the suggestions from Apple support chat, I'm told it is a known problem that is being worked on. Very frustrating and a totally different experience for a long-time Apple fan. I just want to make sure Apple gets paid so my account doesn't expire. How hard can that be?

[alt117]

Actually, it is up to Apple's standards.

[cheezr]

surprise, the day care generation is in fact a generation of whiners!

you go phil gramm!

I agree that Apple should extend our subscriptions until .me is up to snuff.