OK, so I was just thinking, about this continual battle between Google and Apple. If you look at Google and Apple they over lap in certain areas, and they complement each other in different areas. For me as an iPhone and Mac user, my gmail and Google calendar and Google Docs services are really useful to me. I'm writing a novel right now and I keep all my stuff backed up on Google docs, I get exchange support for push email from Google for free, and Google calendar syncs with both my MacBook and my iPhone.
At the same time, Apple would much rather I was using Mobile Me correct? I Google gets a lot by being a major email provider. Sure they have to pay for a lot of server space and bandwidth, but at the same time they get a LOT of information about what I might buy that they are able to then use in their advertising and all that stuff.
We also know Apple is thinking of pushing iAds further than it already is. So the more information they collect from users the better. That said, how do they keep users that aren't terribly monetarily valuable off the service? I mean, if you look around Apple TV and Mobile Me are two of Apple's most unsung products, partly because they don't compete that well with the other things out there.
I mean Apple TV is a great product, but it's damned expensive when you compare it to an Xbox 360 or PS3 that for around the same price does the same thing and is a video game console! And sure Mobile Me has some really great features, but it's hard to justify 100 dollars a year on it.
So what's a better offer? A lot of people say just give it away like all the other services do, we don't pay for Facebook, or Hotmail, or Flickr, or YouTube, why pay for Mobile Me? Well Apple wants to position it as a premium web service... problem is ask anyone, that market isn't really a meaningful one. Nobody is raking in money from premium web services... well aside from porn sites...
But the thing is, Apple has one great place where they're raking in money from customers for non hardware things, and that's the iTunes store, the App store, and now iBooks. So, instead of subscribing once for 100 dollars a year, why not have Mobile Me be tied to your Apple ID, and a reoccurring 10 dollar a month charge that is credited toward your iTunes balance? Or even the Apple Store as a whole. Why not have it simply be tied to what you buy from Apple. This way so long as you buy one whole album, a month, or buy one movie, or rent a few TV shows, or whatever, you don't even get charged for it, but should you not do it, you get charged ten dollars, and you can just wait until something on the store tickles your fancy and purchase it then with the money Apple's already deducted from you?
It would be a super easy sell for Apple Store employees, there's lots of people that easily spend more than ten dollars a month on iTunes, and it would be a great way to assure revenue.
Would you sign up for it?
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