Back on 29 May 2010 I wrote that offering free MobileMe services to anyone buying Apple CPU products would be an excellent way for Apple to both defend itself from and to attack Google’s entry into the world of smartphones.
It’s beginning to sound like Apple has just this idea in mind if reports at AppleInsider and other web sites are accurate.
Apple has a consistent strategy. They offer products, usually hardware, and they offer services which link those products (iTunes, AirPlay, Bonjour, The Apple Stores, MobileMe, etc). The idea is simply that the sum of owning several Apple devices exceeds the individual parts.
Google frequently pulls out their mantra that they support “open” even though “open” in Google’s use of the term means open to Google to run it’s advertising. Google doesn’t mean open as in net neutrality for mobile internet usage for example, it doesn’t mean open as in moving your contact details to Facebook and lots of other little gotcha’s.
Facebook, as I’ve mentioned in several posts, is a real threat to Google because Google has no way of inserting its advertising into Facebook pages. As long as users are working inside Facebook, Google has no way to profit from that user. The same might be said for Microsoft’s growing set of online services.
So it’s a no-brainer for Apple to try to keep its customers as much as possible inside the Apple ecosystem and giving away Apple email, Apple calendars, Apple online storage, etc, ie, those services which are called MobileMe, is a logical move. Time will tell, the internet is full of rumours which never pan out. But my money is on some sort of cloud service which keeps Apple customers in Apple’s sphere of influence and away from Google’s sphere of influence.
How will Apple’s services differ from Google’s? Expect them to look nicer, be simpler to use, have fewer features and for those features to build on elements specific to the Apple user experience.
