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6 comments on May 9th, 2010 |: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable inon line

Everyone that has an iPhone, an iPod Touch and a computer would want to use MobileMe, Apple’s suite of web applications and services that includes email, contacts, photos and calendar web usage, and sharing. The service also includes a virtual disk and services which allow you to locate and wipe a lost iPhone. Apple charges an annual fee of $99 for the service and offers a 5 person family pack for $149.

While the service isn’t extremely expensive, especially the family pack, it is a long way from what you pay for similar services from Google, which is to say nothing. The main advantage of using Apple’s service is its integration with iPhones, iPods and now iPads. The built-in applications in these devices can automatically sync data to and from this service, just as PCs and Macs can. This allows the users to keep all the email, contacts and calendar information in all their devices in sync. This is the most enticing aspect of the service in my opinion.

Google’s services, which are free for everyone, have this sort of integration with Android based devices, which makes these devices have this sync capabilities as default features, instead of optional ones. As people use more devices such as iPhones, iPods and now iPads in addition to regular computers, keeping data in sync and always available becomes more and more important. Having this service available for free can become an important advantage for devices running Google’s Android platform.

From this point of view, offering a free service, at least for owners of compatible Apple devices, would make a lot of sense for Apple. This would bolster the perceived value of the devices and help attract more users to the Mac platform as the online applications greatly resemble Apple’s own native applications in Mac OS X. This might encourage Windows users that become familiar with the service to opt for getting a Mac the next time that they have to buy a desktop or notebook computer.

Of course, running online services like MobileMe has a large cost associated, however considering Apple’s margins on the products it sells and the potential to help sell even more of those devices, as well as the elimination of an advantage of Android over iPhone OS devices may well be worth it. Just today MacDailyNews published a rumor that Apple might be considering doing just this, pending the availability of facilities.

There are certainly valid business reasons for Apple to offer the service for free, and it might just be that they will do so in the near future. Doing so before anyone has the opportunity to bring to market an Android tablet device integrated with Google’s services offer would go a long way to permanently removing or at least seriously downplaying one of the strong talking points for Android evangelists.

Apple should make the service available for free, at least for owners of iPhones, iPods and iPads, sooner rather than later. Doing so as soon as possible will help the company more firmly establish it self as a major player in the online applications space. If the service were available to all for free, just as Google offers its services, it might also serve to bring users who are not yet Apple customers into contact with the company and its products.

Another aspect of such a free offering is that it would truly bring Apple out of the online services sandbox in which it has been playing for the past decade, offering its service as add-on to Macs and iPhones. This would allow Apple to aim for a piece of a market which is native ground for Google, just as Google moved in to step on Apple’s turf when they decided to go into the phone business.

Apart from the cost of starting the operation, I see very little in the of drawbacks for Apple and a lot possible benefits. Apple certainly has the capital available to shrug off the costs and the 1 Billion they’ve invested in creating a major data center facility in North Carolina seems to indicate they plan to expand their on line services big time. Is all this investment targeted at expanding the infrastructure for iTunes, AppStore and iBookstore, or could a sudden expansion of MobileMe be on the horizon?

*images: Apple Inc.

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