Apple is launching a new service in July named MobileMe, and it will be doing some interesting things that may be perfect for the small business owner, the self-employed, or even students on the move.
Big businesses have enjoyed services called “Exchange Servers” for years that allows them to update all their devices in one go. These have been complicated to run, expensive, and out of reach of the every day person. MobileMe will be changing this for people who love their Apple products.
Say you have one computer at home, another at work and an iPhone or iPod Touch for when you are on the go. Keeping your contacts, emals and calendar all synced up with one another can be a difficult task. With MobileMe, all of your devices will sync to one centralized system so that all contacts, emails and calendars are exactly the same on all systems.
Lets say you add a contact on your iPhone, MobileMe will update the other devices within seconds of you making the change and vice-versa. For iPod Touch owners, you will need to be near Wi-Fi to take advantage of the syncing, but it will still be a big help.
What excites me personally is that you get all of this for $99 a year with the addition of 10 GB of online storage space that will allow you to access files on the go, or send them to friends and family.
Are there any potential drawbacks? Yes.
- No word yet if you can use it in conjunction with your pre-existing email accounts. I am not thrilled about setting up yet another email account.
- If don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch, it will be pretty pointless as you can accomplish the same computer-based tasks with numerous other applications.
- $99 is a bit high, I would rather see it around $60 a year.
They will be offering a free 60-day trial period, so it it will be worth giving it a try, but it will certainly not be for everyone. It is, however, a step in the right direction for small businesses and the self-employed.
