Surely releasing the iPhone 3G, App Store, Mobile Me and iPhone Software 2.0 on the same day would result in at least a few mistakes. But nobody could have predicted the overall disaster that the Mobile Me launch ended up being. In an internal email to employees, Steve Jobs confessed that Mobile Me was launched a little too early and it was “not up to Apple’s standards.”
“The e-mail, seen by Ars Technica, acknowledges MobileMe’s flaws and what could have been done to better handle the launch. In addition to needing more time and testing, Jobs believes that Apple should have rolled MobileMe’s services out slowly instead of launching it “as a monolithic service.” For example, over-the-air iPhone syncing could have gone up initially, then web apps one by one (Mail, Calendar, etc.),” Jacqui Cheng reports for ArsTechnica.
“It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store,” Steve Jobs continues to explain in the email. “We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.”
We have reported in the past about the beliefs that this past July 9th was simply too ambitious. A company like Apple, who by choice decides to only release a few products a year, should not be releasing 4 major products on the same day. It is simply too ambitious (not in a good way) and they don’t have enough support to handle the possible disasters that can ensue.
Because the Mobile Me launch was such a failure, Apple has reorganized the entire Mobile Me team, which will now report to Eddy Cue. Cue will report straight to Steve Jobs, as well as head all Internet-related services at Apple (iTunes, App Store, Mobile Me).
“The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services,” Jobs continues to explain. “And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.”
Additional thoughts: Hey Apple, why don’t you ring up Google? They’ve been dealing with online services for some time now. You guys are such healthy and bountiful partners.
Don’t you think it’s time to stop being so secretive and ask a company (Google) who has seemingly been successful in this space for a little help?
2 Comments to “Steve Jobs Admits that Mobile Me is Still “Not up to Apple’s standards””
MobileMe was certainly nothing I asked for, and the transition from .Mac has created such problems for me and my business that I intend to seek financial compensation. For example, my whole carefully compiled and constantly updated address book/database is now lost somewhere in a black cyber hole. I simply can’t access it with MobileMe, and I don’t know why. What’s worse, I have e-mailed Apple and asked what’s wrong and how will you fix it. No reply! That’s outrageous from anyone, but especially from Apple. I will never ever trust the Mac team again. Steve Trygg, New York, NY
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What kind of financial compensation are you seeking? Are you looking for Apple to pay some amount of money per contact lost?
Good luck man.
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