Comments on: Why Apple’s New .Mac—or MobileMe—Will Be More Important Than the 3G iPhone

By: Free iPhone 3G

Free iPhone 3G — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 22:17:44 +0000

Apple knows it job!iPhone 3G is the real stuff!Thanks for great review

By: Webcloudworld

Webcloudworld — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:59:40 +0000

Your analysis is really interessant to read, thanks for it !

By: Seer

Seer — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 15:50:42 +0000

I think there’s a fundamental misconception here: end-customer Cloud Computing (as opposed to that delivered to businesses) is about rendering the desktop application suite irrelevant and hence freeing the customer from the desktop computer itself. Apple, as you say, is all about control. And that control has been (mistakenly in my opinion) delivered by controlling hardware for the last 20 years. The revolution that Cloud Computing is pushing forward is the final victory of open, free, widely available software as opposed to closed, expensive, elitist hardware. In fact, when you sit at a Mac or use an iPhone, you might be in love with how it looks, but we’ve all been truly seduced and convinced by *how it works* Unfortunately, Apple’s hardware-obsessed product planning, founded on the desire to control things, has kept it from thoroughly trouncing Microsoft in the market, which it should have long ago. Apple’s hardware may have carried it to where it is, but its software is the only thing that will carry it farther. And to do that, it must relinquish some of the control over the user that it has enjoyed. This is the problem with control: it backfires as resistance from those who experience that control. I don’t deny that Apple’s vision for the user experience would benefit Cloud computing users, it’s just that if it’s tied in any way to Apple hardware, then someone else without the hardware ball-and-chain will get there first.

By: karla

karla — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 03:35:21 +0000

I submit that the biggest thing that Jobs will announce on Monday is that a Chinese carrier will carry the iPhone starting in July. This will see the stock close at 200, regardless of what feature the new kit will have.

By: Frank L

Frank L — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 02:27:05 +0000

Great ideas but Apple just doesn’t do free. The new .mac/mobileme/me.com will cost and cost a lot. Apple does a lot of great things but they just don’t get ‘free’ the way Google does.

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:44:49 +0000

I’m also looking forward to iPhone 2, but everybody seems to forget that WWDC is a developer’s conference; not a commercial event.

By: Partners in Grime

Partners in Grime — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 21:24:10 +0000

Looking forward to iPhone 2 and finally getting the iPhone in Canada.

By: Michael Mistretta

Michael Mistretta — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 13:07:06 +0000

Khurt: That definition of cloud computing may be true as of today, but that is only because companies like Google don’t have any hardware or desktop software solutions. Apple does however. And I believe that Apple can redefine what cloud computing truly is. Personally, I don’t want all my data living on some server. I’d much rather have the Internet as a WAN (Wide-area network) become like a LAN (Local area network) between all my devices. In other words, I want to be able to connect and interact with all my devices seamlessly over the Internet.

Apple may in fact move in that direction. I know other companies like Google are moving this way as well with Android (the software) and the GPhone (the hardware). It’s just a matter of who gets there first. And Apple has a big head start.

By: Khurt

Khurt — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 12:43:53 +0000

Apple has a chance to completely revolutionize the cloud computing space. They have the advantage over any other company (Adobe, Google, Microsoft, etc.) because they already control the hardware and software.

Great post although I disagree with some of your statements about Cloud Computing. Cloud computing is all about data living on the network … in the server. Do you really think Apple learn to build ( and do better than ) the kind of massively parallel distributed infracstures that these Google and Amazon are already building TODAY.

I am using the definition of Cloud Computing as I understand it ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing ).

By: Levi Figueira

Levi Figueira — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:44:23 +0000

Sorry about the smileys… and the absence of paragraphs (didn’t know I needed to add them “manually”) ^^,

By: Levi Figueira

Levi Figueira — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 11:32:24 +0000

Good article man! Well written and argued! And I “hear ya”… hope Apple does so too! I bought .Mac along with my MBP back in February and haven’t given it much use! I was looking forward to “Back To My Mac” but across firewalls (especially enterprise) it’s not that straight forward… It’s not that I find it hard to open ports and stuff (I work with sysadmin too) but I *can’t* open ports for my personal needs in my corporate firewall!! So, not “having” that feature, I doubt I’ll renew it unless it gets the long-needed revamp you’re talking about! The current .Mac was already a “first stab” at “The Cloud”… Now they need to do with it what they do best: INNOVATE!
“Star Trek-like stuff” uh?? hehe 3G = video calls ! We’ve had that in Europe for years and it never picked up… People want to TALK on the phone… Seeing each other is nice… but an overkill most of the time - just like as for most communication I prefer SMS: K.I.S.S. right? And that’s something Apple does sooooo well… ^^,

By: Nick Humphries

Nick Humphries — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:11:45 +0000

I don’t even think Steve Jobs can say it better than that.

By: Dave

Dave — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 06:02:03 +0000

This is the best post I’ve seen on this.
Thank you!

By: Hank

Hank — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:56:48 +0000

Great link!

By: Gabe Jacobs

Gabe Jacobs — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:28:40 +0000

@Andre

I think you right, but I just can’t help myself. Your lucky that you can easily take a back seat….

By: Andre

Andre — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 05:19:56 +0000

What you propose would be absolutely wonderful, but I can’t really see it happening… Methonks a lot of people are going to be dissapointed come Tuesday… All this hype is getting ridiculous.

By: Gabe Jacobs

Gabe Jacobs — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 04:18:47 +0000

I have to say Michael, you beat me to this post. I agree almost 100% on this. Something I have really stressed in my blog is that Apple and Steve Jobs are visionaries. When ever they release products, they do it with a plan of something great. Maybe with .Mac, they had a really amazing vision of having all of your offline iLife apps being seamlessly connected and integrated with your own personal space on the web. At the time, it sounded like an amazing thing, but the competition caught up to them and people found easier and better ways to do these things (flickr vs. web gallery). With mobileme and me.com, Apple is going to be doing something that no one else will be able to compete with. Why? Exactly what you said, they have total control. They wont just be integrating the web with the iLife apps, they will be integrating your whole computer with the web. Doing this means your computer can be connected with your iPhone. I think Steve Jobs has a plan to brings your computer to your iPhone. He has already figured out the way that will blow our minds…