.Mac

Has Dot Mac changed your opinion of Apple?

  • It's Apple prerogative to start charing for iTools-like services and I'll happily pay for it.

    Votes: 31 32.3%

  • Apple's got be kidding if they think I'll pay that much for something that used to be free

    Votes: 51 53.1%

  • I'm shocked: I'll never think of Apple the same way again

    Votes: 22 22.9%
  • Total voters
    96
  • Poll closed .
G

ghyde

CCNA, CCDA
iTools was marketed as another reason to buy a Mac. I just got an email: iTools is transforming into .Mac (and now it's gonna cost us!). Say ood-by to the web page. Good-by to iCards and WebMail. Most of all, Good-by to free backup space on iDisk!!

For two and a half years, we were cultivated by Apple to rely on these services as an advantage to owning a Mac. Now, in Microsoft fashion, these services will for now on come at a price.

And we Mac-ers scoffed at .Net.

Anyone else put out by this??
 
If I can keep my email account free of charge i'll be happy

There's a thread in the Mac OS news and rumors forum referring to that, but I can't seem to find the darn button :rolleyes:
 
And Crap, I just finished changing all my email listings (including 250 business cards) with my mac.com address. Heck, I was figuring it would be the One address I'd have the rest of my life.

A Great bragging right once had over Windows users has been taken away.
 
The odd thing was that right before the .mac announcement Steve was criticizing yahoo for charging for their services!
 
There was also a good movement among shareware/freeware developers to share their software via their iDisks. I guess most of them will have to look for other means (i.e. set up a real website).
 
Originally posted by wdw_
The odd thing was that right before the .mac announcement Steve was criticizing yahoo for charging for their services!
Click to expand...

I don't think he was criticizing them.... he was stating that things have changed in the world, and people have realized that bandwidth aint free!

No need to whine about this stuff...

with Backup and Virex, this is easily worth that much money per year.
 
I was ABOUT to pay for my yahoo.com address since it has a calendar I use a lot and like to sync it with my PDA (well, before it died that is), and I wanted to get Pop3 access and a what not...

But now with iCal, iSync, Antivirus, Backup software, LARGE Email Box,and LARGE "FTP" Storage Space to go along with Pop3, "IMAP" and Webmail on .Mac... I will defenatly go .Mac as soon as I get my first paycheck (new job! :D)

"FREE" has been dying everywhere on the 'net, FREE was just NOT making money for anyone - that's why so many companies have either gone under or turned into a charged subscription for ther services (and the ones who haven't yet - will either die or charge soon). So I totally understand this...

It's stuff I like, stuff I belive in and it gives me a lot for my money, and $3.75 a month for the first year, then 8.25 a month thereafter (in yearly payments) - it's not a bad deal at all AFAIC!

:D
 
I think Apple's decision is to take an additional step toward profitability. Even MS is telling Hotmail subscribers that the free ride is over without a subscription to MSN.
I agree that $100 is steep, and $130 is a lot for OS 10.2. If we want Apple to survive, we'll have to contribute. So, for once, I'm telling my Mac buddies to buy their own copy of the new OS instead of asking for a copy of mine. Maybe ".mac" is not for everybody, but then, I've been a Mac addict since the Mac 128. It is matter of choice, but, THE FREE RIDE IS OVER.
 
Originally posted by rinse

with Backup and Virex, this is easily worth that much money per year.
Click to expand...

Hmm, wouldn't you have to pay ONCE for it and not every year??

Ok, of course Apple will surely add new services to their .Mac but I wonder if they'll be so great.
 
Just got an email from an Apple moderator. My post over there, regarding the issue of this topic, has been yanked.
 
Mac OS X General Questions. I couldn't find a better place for it, and realized I was digressing, but I Wanted them to see it.
 
Ok, well here's my perspective:

Nothing lasts forever, and free things last even less. Remember hotmail? That used to be free; now they're downgrading services to people who don't pay.

Almost every free service provided by a major company has started free, with the full intention of charging later when they get people hooked. That's how sooo many tech firms went bust back in the late '90s (yikes that makes me feel old! :eek: ) because as soon as they started charging the users said "ta-ta" and left them holding the bag.

But for Apple, it worked beautifully. They got us all hooked on the cool iTools suite, and they're now making us pay for it. I for one, studying economy, think it's a good thing for Apple to do: capitalize on something that they can. They are a corporation after all, not the Salvation Army.

I've been happy with the iTools, and hey, having a 100MG idisk, and this neat online+offsite backup application, and 15 megs of POP3/IMAP space, I think that's worth the $49 per year (well this year anyway). I just signed up, and I'm not experiencing any buyers remorce.

Hey, I used to be a pretty good salesperson in a web hosting firm (since bought out), and our smallest package was over $45 US and that was mostly trying to sell out tech support: the megs of space were over $1 each!

Anyway to amke a long story short, I think a fourth option "I'll pay but I wish I didn't have to" should be added, that's what i'd have voted. But all in all, I'm not so poor that I can't afford $49 a year, EVEN being a student and all... ;)
 
I really don't see why everyone is whining so much about .Mac, really it is well worth the money for what you get. Granted I never really used my Mac.com e-mail address or iDisk or anything much, so I'm not really going to miss it. You can still get a Mac.com e-mail address without the rest of the .Mac package for only $10 a year! That's less than $1 a month, you could find the money for that in your couch or scattered in your car! It's not free for Apple to provide everyone with their own e-mail addresses, online storage, etc... so I only see it the next logical step for them to begin charging for these services. Apple started iTools out for free to give everyone a good idea just how really useful they were and gain a large adoption, now they are charging for these services, but I still stress that what they charge really is a very good deal, and this money goes to support our favorite computer company. Look at it this way: would you rather pay say M$, Yahoo, or Apple? I'd go with Apple anyday. I don't know how much M$ or Yahoo charges for their services nor the extent of them, but I'd say just for e-mail it'd be hard to beat $10/year for mac.com e-mail.
 
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