.MAC
.MAC
- Subject: .MAC
- From: Janice Kempf <email@hidden>
- Date: Thu, 19 Sep 2002 10:25:23 -0700
This was recently posted to my OSX Discussion list and thought it was
important and of interest, so I'm passing it along. Seems Randy has not
been able to post to the AUGD for a couple of weeks now, so I'm posting for
him.
Janice Kempf
Group Leader
MacRogues OS X Online MUG & Discussion List
http://osxlist.com
VP LCMUG
http://www.lcmug.com
--------------------
http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0209/17.hellweg.php
In the article above this guy says Apple will have a tough 2003. And I
believe him, but not for the issues he talks about. Apple headed down a
path of poor customer service, disrespectful and inconsiderate practices
towards their customers who but Mac and this whole .mac fiasco is but one
symptom.
Publicly this week Apple stated that they consider the 100,000 .mac
subscribers to be proof that people want to pay for itools.
That said, 100,000 is far below the 2 million itools subscribers they had
previously. And when you do the math:
100,000 x $50 = $5,000,000
Or about 1/7 (one seventh) of Apple's current total investment into .mac
which has been quoted as being $35 million dollars. (my sources reveal
that9s just what they spent to bring .mac where it is now, this figure does
not include ongoing costs like bandwidth)
I think 100k of subscribers is a nice milestone but its far to early to tell
whether .mac will be a success. The key day and one that will probably
cause a lot of fussing and fuming will be September 30th when unpaid .mac
accounts will be closed which I believe will create a huge amount of bad
blood between Apple and their customer base. Bad blood is something that
Apple can not afford to create - yet through .mac and several other ways
they are creating a tremendous reputation for being a company that does not
care about their customers.
This is something to think about and if you are interested, shoot me an
email and we can have an internet discussion about this issue.
In the mean time, I have done some thinking this .mac issue and have come up
with a list of why someone might enjoy a .mac account. (This is just a
list, it is not an endorsement):
http://www.mac.com/1/hpnewfeatures.html
I know that like many of you I am extremely skeptical of the whole .mac
initiative and offended by the irresponsible way this change was presented
to us, the Mac Faithful. This kind of disrespectful treatment by Mr. Jobs
at MacWorld New York can only continue so long before some of us leave the
platform.
That said, there are some interesting tidbits about .mac that might
encourage you to reconsider this new offering from Apple:
#1. The most interesting tidbit that I was able to uncover is that Apple has
spent some $35 million US Dollars on this initiative. My source says this
the figure for development and marketing costs but does not include the
ongoing costs for the internet connection that Apple must pay in order to
keep .mac webpages and email going. $35 million does show that Apple
intends to try and do a first class job with this internet product.
#2. Backup. Yea, I know that most of us more expert users will never need
this but for the novice user, the seasoned citizen, this is going to be a
wonderful addition that will provide tremendous security because all of the
work, the data, the digital life that they have collected can be safely and
efficiently archived - when it works. I say that as I have been receiving
reports that this backup is regularly failing for many customers.
The most passed over part of this new backup asset for .mac users is the
"Quick Picks" feature that allows you to easily and more or less instantly
back up all of your most important documents (like your contacts, your word
documents, etc.) - making sure that things you really need to keep are kept
so in the event of a catastrophic crash your digital life is not crippled.
3. The homepage. Most of us who would ever use a homepage actually pay for
a domain name and buy a real website. And I would venture that no matter
what Apple does with .mac, having a .mac homepage will never be a
replacement for a real webpage on the internet.
That said, Apple is adding some significant upgrades to your .mac homepage
authoring abilities. This includes great templates and stunning graphic
design (which make your page look like every other .mac customer), the
ability to password protect certain folders which may contain data that you
prefer not be privy to the rest of the world, the ability to easily publish
specific event type web pages quickly with great templates.
Here's one I did in a few minutes so my friends could see my beautiful new
niece:
http://homepage.mac.com/randymarshall/Events1.html
Pretty easy.
4. Free software. So far Apple has been giving away some interesting
freebies with the .mac account. In the long run, if they keep up this kind
of thing there might be a few things that might actually be worth the cost
of at least a $50 .mac account.
5. Great Webmail - Up until about six months ago, you could not get your
.mac mail online through a browser if you had a .mac account. Your only
alternative was Hotmail (which is a great product). Now you can read your
mail on the run which is a really nice feature.
6. Ability to let people FTP stuff to you! Now you can let other people FTP
stuff to your .mac account and get when you have time to download it.
Those are the good things I have thought of and in addition like many of you
I have some concerns as well:
1. Using your idisk with Mac OS 9 is a complete nightmare! This has been a
horrible experience that Apple has never fixed from the first time anyone
has ever used an iDisk. The product is not that bad (it is a bad
experience, just not as bad as OS 9) in Mac OS X (though it still seems
incredibly slow to me) and most of the new features of a .mac account are
only useable in Mac OS X.
Though I use OS X, there are some people who are just not ready for this
transition and of those who have shared this concern with me, the majority
of them have offered that if they upgrade again which is likely for all
these users in the next year - they will seriously consider switching but
this time to a Windows machine because of Apple's disrespectful practice of
treating their customers.
2. I have a great many friends using Macs worldwide and several in the know
have expressed grave concerns about the safety and security of .mac mail.
To be forthright, I have had at least three people including an Apple
employee who expressly requested that I never share anything of a sensitive
nature via her .mac account.
Given this feedback from people in the know, things I have heard and seen
Apple do, and the negative way I am seeing even today that they treat their
customers, I personally am hesitant to share any information of importance
though .mac. Apple has violated my personal trust significantly this year
which bothers me tremendously as I love my Mac and want to support the
company that makes Macs.
That said, most of the stuff we do is not important or critical to anyone.
So for most intents and purposes, you can use .mac and have fun. Though I
have a .mac account, I am still not sold on this process. Perhaps time will
validate this products usefulness.
I hope you have enjoyed this article. I would enjoy hearing your thoughts
on this issue!
My best,
Randy Marshall
Pres., CarolinaMUG.com
Randolph Marshall <email@hidden>
--
"If there are two ways to take something someone said, and one makes you
angry and upset, assume they meant it the other way."
iChat: jkempf (mac.com)
_______________________________________________
augd mailing list | email@hidden
Help/Unsubscribe/Archives:
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/augd
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
- Follow-Ups:
- Re: .MAC
- From: Matt Johnston <email@hidden>