The thing that will really limit the potential of MobileMe is that the email address is not free. No one wants to sign-up for an email address that will go away if they ever decide to stop using the rest of the service. And, no one wants to pay full price for something if they're not going to use all the features. Make the email free (me.com is a pretty cool email) and people will start to whip out their annual Benjamins for the rest of the service!
Maybe Eddy Cue, the new head of MobileMe, reads HN. If so, you're welcome.
Maybe the whole thing needs to be free. Break Apple's make a profit on everything policy. In this case, these are the types of features people will use because they're there and get used to having. The they get hooked.
Apple could get their own social network out of it. And they're going for a few rubles these days.
Impressive candor. What other big co would have the confidence to admit its failures so quickly? Not even Google. Microsoft, meanwhile, is launching a huge ad campaign to convince users they're wrong for disliking their latest OS.
I think the intent of this message was to admit failure internally only. It was a corporate email, not a press release.
Bill Gate's emails were a lot more strongly worded than this email from Jobs. Take the Gates email about Windows Movie Maker that was published everywhere last month as an example.
Also, Microsoft's ad campaign boils down to "despite what you've heard, we think you'd like Windows Vista if you gave it a try. So why don't you?" In other words, it isn't "you are wrong for disliking Vista" but more like "what you've heard about Vista is wrong or outdated."
I agree with you about Google. They rarely say anything, good or bad. If there is a specific widespread problem then they might admit there is a problem and then issue a statement when it is fixed; their commentary is minimal if not non-existent.
I think the intent of this message was to admit failure internally only. It was a corporate email, not a press release.
There's a fertile grey area between the top-secret internal email and the press release, ranging from deliberately dropping a copy of your "top-secret" email on the floor of a journalist's office to deliberately sending the email to a bunch of people who are known to be bad at keeping secrets.
Apple's pretty good at keeping secrets. When something leaks out of Apple within 24 hours I tend to assume that it had some assistance.
I think the diplomatic wording is another clue that Jobs, at the very least, doesn't care that this email got out.
The way Apple keeps secrets is by keeping information strictly need to know. Anything that gets sent out to the whole company is usually leaked pretty quickly.
Surprising, but necessary. Apple kept its mouth shut for a month about the issues. For a whole month some people couldn't get to their e-mail at all, and during the entire time Apple refused to comment to the press. Not to mention that the 6 hour launch turned into a one week ordeal for everyone else (and that the software doesn't even run in IE).
They were getting so much negative attention from that (and the Jobs health issue), it would have been a huge mistake to say nothing. Even the manner in which they did it, though, is evidence of the regard Apple holds for communicating with the public.
Actually, Amazon is the big company that admits its failures so quickly. They're completely upfront about AWS going down, and they post a detailed analysis of the problem and the solution once the situation has been resolved. I think Amazon has set the standard for customer feedback when it comes to web services.
This is a textbook example of an orchestrated PR leak. They admit they have problems, but on other hand they really don't since it's an "internal email".
'"The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services," Jobs says. "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."'
If its not leaked & not intended for general consumption its pretty worrying. Could you imaging working with someone who says 'we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of' instead of 'this sucks. We need to fix it.'
'"The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services," Jobs says. "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."'
If its not leaked & not intended for general consumption its pretty worrying. Could you imaging working with someone who says 'we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of' instead of 'this sucks. We need to fix it.'
Maybe Eddy Cue, the new head of MobileMe, reads HN. If so, you're welcome.