How Do You Like MobileMe For Free?
sanziro.com
sanziro.com
Paying for something reduces the likelihood that the provider will do unscrupulous things with my data for financial gain. Or at least I feel like they’d be less likely. And ignorance is bliss, right?
Add on the fact that it's currently usually businesses that use it, and I feel even safer that my data won't be fucked with or social networked (cough buzz) on a whim. Maybe on a little more, but probably not a whim :)
It's what I use and love.
On the other hand, the cost of hosting email, calendars, address book sync, etc... is fairly small. I could see a dropbox-like scenario where you get a small amount of free storage (plenty for contacts, calendars, and recent email). Then you pay for additional storage and/or access to premium streaming content. That offering could be built into the purchase price of most Apple gear without a dramatic price increase.
Ever heard of the iTunes music store? Minimally profitable and repeatedly referred to as a driver for iPod/iWhatever sales rather than a profit center. Without the iPhone's popularity, the same concept would apply to the App Store as well. When announced, it was directly compared to the music operation, and not expected to make any measurable impact on the bottom line.
This analysis (though obviously flawed by Apple's own sales data release policies) largely backs up these statements: http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/255967-timeline-strategy-c...
That was the whole point of my post. Lots of companies would be tempted to operate something like the iTunes music store at a loss, since it would be seen as driving sales (a marketing expense if you will). For example: Amazon has is known to sell a significant number of ebooks at a loss to keep prices low to drive Kindle sales.
My understanding from everything I have read is that Apple at least breaks even, and may make a small amount of revenue. They do not lose any money on the iTunes store. If there is going to be a free component to MobileMe, they are going to try and generate profits from it somehow.
But I do agree with you on your first point. Apple does not create products as loss leaders. It just doesn't seem to be a part of their culture to create a product that cannot be profitable on its own.
And even if it were free, I'd still avoid it like the plague, because there are better offering's out there, most of which aren't mostly tied down to an OS.
This is unlikely to happen, unless Apple becomes a mobile service provider which is likely a bigger possibility.
That would be the key, being free is not really a differentiator any more.
Having iDisk to provide net storage to iPhone OS devices would be a fairly big deal by itself. (Assuming they include over-the-air backup and fix the workflow issue.)