Early last month, Apple unveiled its successor to .Mac in the form of MobileMe, a service that Apple had hoped would be the best cloud-based solution to date.
However, the launch wasn't without its problems and many users soon experienced a multitude of problems ranging from the inability to access their mail accounts to difficulties with syncing their devices. Acknowledging that the service just wasn't up to standards, Apple responded with the launch of a dedicated MobileMe status blog.
In recent weeks, Apple has managed to restore most functionality, but accepts that the MobileMe service isn't quite what it had hoped. As a result, it's offering a free 60-day extension to MobileMe members whose account was active as of August 19, 2008 at 0:00 Pacific Daylight Time.
The Apple support website states:
The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped. While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members’ patience as we continue to improve the service.
Despite the clearly problematic launch, the free extension will be welcome news to customers and somewhat explains Apple's topping of a recent customer satisfaction poll.
On the other hand, the free extension will be of little consolation to customers whose e-mails were lost between July 18th and July 22nd. MobileMe, clearly, was a service not quite ready for launch.
Source: support.apple.com
