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Apple Discontinuing MobileMe Retail Boxes, Preparing for Free Overhauled Version?

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Apr 12, 2001
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Apple today notified resellers that it has discontinued the retail box version of MobileMe, shifting entirely to digital sales. Existing stocks of boxed MobileMe can continue to be sold.

Since the boxed MobileMe products contain only an activation code and promotional materials, the offering of a physical MobileMe product has primarily been used to provide in-store visibility for the service.

Apple is reportedly working on an overhaul of its MobileMe service, potentially looking to shift to a free offering that would provide users with "digital lockers" for housing their music, photos, and videos. Consequently, the discontinuation of boxed MobileMe products could be paving the way for a sell-off of existing stock and a brief period of digital-only sales before transitioning to a free service.

Apple's North Carolina data center has been the subject of considerable speculation regarding potential cloud-based offerings. Apple acknowledged at yesterday's shareholder meeting that the center is not yet open, but should be opening soon to support MobileMe and iTunes. Five times larger than Apple's existing primary data center in Newark, California, the North Carolina center will offer significantly expanded infrastructure for the company that could support the rumored cloud-based services.

Article Link: Apple Discontinuing MobileMe Retail Boxes, Preparing for Free Overhauled Version?
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2011/02/24/apple-discontinuing-mobileme-retail-boxes-preparing-for-free-overhauled-version/
I guess what I'm not understanding, why continue to sell a product to people that your about to launch as a free service to new customers?

What are they going to do for those whom have already paid or will in the near future once its launched as a free service, a refund a bigger storage vault etc?
 
Probably going to be one of those lotto scratchers for the keys and be a cardboard box. Made of Recycled materials of course.

Wished it was completely free instead of having to cost anything. The Premium of being a Apple Consumer.
 
This could mean either it's going free or they're just not supporting in-store sales of the product anymore.

I tend to think that the free option is more reasonable since I don't see any good reason to reduce your sales channels otherwise. Discounted boxes are a small issue here since the very existence of boxes would likely pull in new users.
 
AbblePC said:
I guess what I'm not understanding, why continue to sell a product to people that your about to launch as a free service to new customers?

What are they going to do for those whom have already paid or will in the near future once its launched as a free service, a refund a bigger storage vault etc?
Click to expand...

Yea like me who was just charged last night.
 
Why Free?

I don't understand all these rumors of free. Is it only wishful thinking? There may be a "free" entry-level tier, allowing limited storage and features. But I don't see Apple abandoning the subscription model, especially for those who have larger online storage requirements.
 
MacRumors said:
Apple is reportedly working on an overhaul of its MobileMe service, potentially looking to shift to a free offering that would provide users with "digital lockers" for housing their music, photos, and videos. Consequently, the discontinuation of boxed MobileMe products could be paving the way for a sell-off of existing stock and a brief period of digital-only sales before transitioning to a free service.
Click to expand...

I refuse to believe that Apple will be 'giving' this away. I expect there to always be a fee for the MobileMe service.
 
My annual subscription is up next month and I was going renew with the box from B&H Photo which costs about 30% less than Apple. So will I need to buy directly from Apple for full price + tax :( or will Apple have it for free soon? Only Apple knows for sure.
 
Maybe FREE with Lion

Maybe it will be free with your UPGRADE of Lion...

what better way to push mobile me that to put it with the newest OS
 
sjsutton said:
I don't understand all these rumors of free. Is it only wishful thinking? There may be a "free" entry-level tier, allowing limited storage and features. But I don't see Apple abandoning the subscription model, especially for those who have larger online storage requirements.
Click to expand...

Yeah; I agree too. Apple does love their revenue streams. I can't see them making MobileMe completely free-I also foresee them offering a 'free' entry level tier.
 
This is good news so long as the entire service is free. The boxes are nicely discounted. My family subscription is about $50 cheaper than Apple would charge. If they keep charging via online only, this will suck.
 
Sky Blue said:
does that mean I can't get a cheap box from amazon (if it doesn't go free?)

:(
Click to expand...

First thing that I thought about. I love mobileme, but I refuse to pay full price for it, so will most likely cancel if that's the only option.
 
I'm not sure that anything about the future of MobileMe can be concluded from this in light of Apple's current move away from physical software in its own retail stores and the start of the Mac App Store. It could be just that they're digitising future MobileMe sales in the same way, rather than eliminated retailer stock before it goes free.

We can always hope though...
 
sjsutton said:
I don't understand all these rumors of free. Is it only wishful thinking? There may be a "free" entry-level tier, allowing limited storage and features. But I don't see Apple abandoning the subscription model, especially for those who have larger online storage requirements.
Click to expand...

It is definitely wishful thinking on my part.

Perhaps Apple will move to a free base offering and then have a tiered subscription model for more services and larger storage?
 
MobileMe should be free with a mac or an iDevice.

I have already put for the subsciption and I think its worth the price, but still I could get 2 or 3 services, put up together providing all the benefits for free.
 
This makes a lot of sense. Who needs a box? And make it cheaper or free and I'll actually use it. If it was ~$25 per year like Flickr I'd be likely to use it, even if some features were more limited than they are now. Even better if it's free.
 
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