August 4, 2008: Steve Jobs admits it was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, App Store and iPhone 2.0 software.
By 2008, Jobs identified the cloud service as the next step in Apple’s “digital hub” strategy, shortly after its return in the late 1990s. MobileMe was supposed to expand its reach to iPhone and iPod touch owners.
The service allows users to store address books, documents, calendars, pictures, emails, and videos remotely and sync them across all Apple devices for a $99 annual subscription.
Unsuccessful start MobileMe
Immediately after its launch on July 9, 2008, MobileMe encountered problems with unstable user experience and difficulties with pre-authorization. A major email outage affecting one in 100 customers remained unresolved until July 29th.
Steve Jobs had to admit that the launch of the MobileMe service should have been done in stages: first, synchronization with the iPhone, then Mail, and then the calendar and other applications. He fires the team leader, noting her extremely poor performance, and replaces him with Eddie Cue.
Ultimately, MobileMe survived until mid-2012, when Apple shut down the service, having stopped advertising it to new customers the year before.
In October 2011, iCloud replaced MobileMe. While the new service is still far from perfect, iCloud had a better start than its predecessor.
The post Steve Jobs admits MobileMe failure appeared first on Gamingsym.