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Apple working on major revamp of MobileMe, could be free

by Steven Sande Feb 14th 2011 at 11:00AM

On the eve of the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, the Wall Street Journal online tech section ran a short post discussing a new, less-expensive iPhone that is apparently in the works (and all but confirmed by the Wall Street Journal). The timing of the post was impeccable -- by "leaking" this information on Sunday, the WSJ and Apple ensured that the iPhone will be the major topic of discussion at MWC without Apple having to exhibit or even attend the conference.

In order to achieve a low price point that would make iPhones even more ubiquitous than they already are, the post speculated that MobileMe would become a free service that purchasers could use to contain their music, photos, and videos. The result? The new iPhone wouldn't need as much storage to hold all of those memories and tunes, so the price would drop.

According to sources who spoke to the Wall Street Journal, the new MobileMe service could make it to iOS devices by June depending on the outcome of licensing talks. WIth the new service, your iPhone or iPad would have access to your iTunes library wirelessly. No syncing to your Mac or PC would be required, nor would you need to have massive amounts of memory to store the music and video files locally. To paraphrase the Microsoft ads that are currently making the rounds, "To the cloud!"

The Journal went on to say that the service would probably be backwards-compatible with the iPhone 4. As with all rumors, remember that despite the source, this may be well-meaning fiction. We'll see for sure as 2011 progresses. In the meantime, what do you think about a free MobileMe? Do you think it will happen this year? Leave a comment below.



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On the eve of the start of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona today, the Wall Street Journal online tech section ran a short post...
 

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n00neimp0rtant

Cloud-based iTunes: Because Steve doesn't care how much extra he has to pay to AT&T to stream 100% of his music all the time after he blasts through his 2GB.

February 21 2011 at 1:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
xdibellax

apple has purchased land in NC back in early 2009 I believe. It would be no suprise to me if Apple did not do something of this caliber. They are not always the first to the market with the latest and greatest. i feel they take to to get it right in most area's. The free mobile me is something that I could see happeneing. However I believe to make up for connection issues with the networks they would need to include soem small bit of memory when off network.

February 16 2011 at 2:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dan Woods

I'd be happy with a way to keep track of Playcounts and Ratings in iTunes.

Keeping a manifest of what media (both paid for and ripped) is in my iTunes librar(y|ies), on what machines would also be handy. If missing licenced content could be re-acquired (like iOS and Mac Apps) that would really add value without straining the network too much.

Hosting a private P2P network to keep my iTunes Libraries synced (using Home Sharing/Back To My Mac) would be awesome.

February 15 2011 at 3:02 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
alexandrusteimle

I hope it is free!! I would soo get it!! :P

February 14 2011 at 6:19 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wxtech

No carrier has service everywhere. What then?

February 14 2011 at 5:01 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
iBookmaster

Probably won't ever be free knowing Apple. Half price isn't too bad and I get that by ordering it every year on Amazon.

February 14 2011 at 4:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Cam

Damn. I prematurely purchased and entered my Family Pack key which goes up for renewal in June. It's already set to auto-renew. Fail? Refund? *weeps*

February 14 2011 at 4:06 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew Marvick

They won't offer unlimited MobileMe data storage for free! There are plenty of people who have 300 GB or more of music files, not to mention terabytes of video files. Until high-speed streaming is really reliable and omnipresent, and cloud storage is really unlimited and free, the whole cloud thing will remain vapor.

February 14 2011 at 3:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
wsturges

The price of the phone itself doesn't seem very important if we have to pay $70 a month for two years, guaranteed.
t

February 14 2011 at 3:28 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
misterlevitan

My subscription is up for renewal 25 April... Sooooo close to a possible June announcement. I wonder what will happen for the others in the same boat as me.
BTW did anyone else get a free 6-mo extension last year for "disrupted service"? I didn't experience anything untoward yet I got a nice freebie.

Good points above about paying to access your own music. No way that will fly...

February 14 2011 at 3:02 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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