Jonathan Feldman writes for Informationweek, “This just in from Apple: ‘MobileMe ends June 30. Although there are good standards-based ways to make your contacts and calendars available, we will arbitrarily disable those features in OS/X until you upgrade your operating system and, we hope, purchase new hardware from us.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Number one, this is not “just in,’ Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the end of MobileMe on June 6, 2011. Number two, what Apple actually stated via a reminder email sent to MobileMe users last week is the only thing that should be placed in quotes, unlike the hack Feldman has done above, is as follows: “MobileMe ends June 30. Remember to download your Gallery photos, iDisk files, and move your iWeb sites before that date.”
Feldman writes, “OK, maybe that’s not the way Apple put it, but that’s the message I hear. In my personal life, Apple is starting to drive me crazy with planned obsolescence. And now that the iPhone is a part of many of our enterprise deployments, Apple’s planned obsolescence will start to drive us crazy at work, too… Apple’s plans to change the dock connector on the next iPhone… That’s fantastic if you’re an Apple shareholder, but it’s annoying and expensive if you have to replace a fleet of iPhone accessories every time you replace your organization’s iPhones.”
MacDailyNews Take: As if simple adapters wouldn’t be available. (They certainly were the last time Apple changed connectors from FireWire to the current 30-pin Dock Connector in 2003.)
“Is innovation really supposed to work like this? I don’t think so. Here’s how it’s supposed to work: Supplier comes up with compelling value proposition for buyer. Buyer gladly parts with cash so that buyer can benefit from innovation,” Feldman writes. “This planned obsolescence thing is simply a message that not only will you buy the BMW of smartphones, but you will replace it on Apple’s schedule, not yours.”
MacDailyNews Take: Informationweek is to be commended with hiring the disabled, but minimum mental requirements really should be required for writers. Perhaps Feldman should be tasked with floor care or something less demanding.
This is exactly how innovation is supposed to work. The $99/year MobileMe has been replaced with a “compelling value proposition,” Apple’s free iCloud. And, Apple is not forcing you to buy a new iPhone, dummy.
Full piece – Think before You Click™ – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
MacDailyNews Take: Even more than feigned indignity, whining about concocted nonsense, and making unsubstantiated claims (where’s the proof of “customer revolt,” dummy?), Jonathan Feldman loves email. Lots and lots of email.
Send him some here: jf@feldman.org
The end of MobileMe, and because iCloud relatively limited and only available for Lion, (Vista and W7), has dissipated users to many other products – including those of rivals such as Microsoft (e.g. SkyDrive), Firefox, Google, Flickr etc etc.
So you could say that Apple are backing off from the all encompassing ‘user environment’ to a more comfortable mix n’ match situation – where “planned obsolescence” is ineffective.
Well the planned obsolescence that’s pissing me off is that iOS 6 won’t work on my 2 year old iPad. What a load of BS that is !