Posts tagged MobileMe

So I’m on day 2 of my trial period with MobileMe. Here are some quick initial thoughts, starting with the Cons.

• It Costs Money. We all know this, and it’s the main reason holding back widespread adoption of this service. I like to compare the cost to Apple’s Airport routers. Why would most people pay $200 for a router, when they can get a more fragmented solution for $60? Most do not.
• I Still Need a 2nd Email Account on iPhone: I have personal and business email accounts. However, I always want a universal inbox, where all the messages go to one place. The web client for MobileMe Mail allows multiple “Send From” addresses. However, this isn’t possible yet on the iPhone. Therefore, I have a 2nd email account so that the “Send From” address is always correct. Note that the iPad does not allow this either, but there’s no disadvantage because no solution allows for multiple “Send From” addresses on the iPad that I am aware of.

Those are really the only negative aspects to me at the moment. One minor and one major. Now, the positives

• Much Improved Calendar Sync: I actually stopped using the Calendar features on my iPhone because syncing with Google was not producing the results I wanted. With personal, business, and other types, I was unable to get the same results on my mobile devices, the web, and my laptop. With MobileMe, everything is syncing great.
• Much Better Integration: The desktop apps I use all easily connected with the MobileMe service. The website provides one place to access all of this information as well, including files, contacts, etc. Finally, my mobile devices are also syncing as expected with little hassle. To again use the Airport router analogy, when one company creates the integrating pieces, everything works with a lot less hassle.
• Find my iPhone/iPad: While not worth the $99 price on its own, it’s an awesome feature.

So this afternoon I caved and subscribed to the free trial of MobileMe. I’ve always thought that MobileMe had some cool features, but at $99 / year, I just didn’t think it was worth my money.

Today, that changed, somewhat. There’s no one killer feature of MobileMe that made me try it out today, such as the “Find my iPhone” app that is entering the iTunes App Store, or the iDisk app (there’s a similar Dropbox app).

The fact is that every feature, sans the “Find my…” feature, can be done with other (free) products. However, the fragmentation and number of websites I have to visit for these free features finally reached a point where I actually felt good about trying to consolidate everything.

For example, I’m starting to take more pictures with my camera. Today, I wanted to send a few pics by email, but the email was over 22MB. Therefore, I thought posting them on the web would be a better solution. Since I don’t have an account on Flickr or another website, that would be another fragmented solution.

Therefore, I decided to try MobileMe. This is what I get rid of.

• Google for contacts, mail, calendar
• Dropbox for files
• Flickr (or something I would have chosen) for photos
• and I get “Find my iPhone/iPad”

What’s also great is the synchronization with my iPhone and iPad. As with the Airport line of routers, if you own Apple products, integrating everything together is extremely easy.

While I hope MobileMe becomes free someday, consolidating these features into one website seems worth the price so far. I have 59 days remaining on my free trial, but have been able to easily transition.