Amid MobileMe failures, a star is emerging

Continuing reports of outages and general complaints about the service have given Apple reason to give another free extension on their MobileMe account holders. This time Apple has doubled the extension to 60 days, meaning that most MobileMe customers will have gotten a 90 day free extension on their accounts.

First of all I should say that I don't use MobileMe. I've tried it a few times (and Apple even tried to bill me for it without my permission --FREE TRIAL!--grrrr) but it never hit that sweet spot. My biggest fear is that Apple will switch up the service and charge five times as much. At that point, if I want to continue to use my .Mac or me.com email address, I'll have to pony up the money or go through the laborious task of informing all of my contacts that I am yet again changing emails. For now I am happy with Google Apps.

But, I see where MobileMe is going, and it is exactly what Apple should be doing. Over the past several years Apple has been moving parts of the Macintosh user account online. Eventually, you will have a cloud computer (see MobileMe Logo) account that you can log into from any machine. Even a Windows machine.

Where is MobileMe now and how long will it take to get there? Well, you have your email, calendar and address book in the cloud. This will work across all devices (in Apple's world view), Macs, PCs, iPhones and iPods.

It can also act as a repository for all of your photos and act as a 20Gb backup for your files on your desktop and your documents folder. By copying some of your library preferences, MobileMe can even act as a dock and preferences sync.

So, currently Apple has most of your user account already sitting in the cloud. The next step, which doesn't seem too much of a stretch at this point, is to have "cloud user accounts". Perhaps part of Snow Leopard, having the ability to sign onto your account using what Leopard Server administers will know as Mobile Home Accounts. When you walk up to a Mac or a PC with some Apple software installed, say at a school kiosk, you will be able to sign in with your Me.com account. At that point, all of your settings appear on the desktop. All of your files, music, movies, documents and photos are at your fingertips. Depending on what applications are installed on the local machine, your settings for them will be there too. For instance, if you have FTP sites bookmarked in Cyberduck and the machine you are signed onto has Cyberduck, your bookmarks will be there.

This will also work on iPods and iPhones. While these devices won't need things from the account like Cyberduck preferences, they will take things like email account information and browser bookmarks...much like currently is done when setting up an iPhone...except you won't need a computer.

This cloud account world is really not that far from a reality. Faster Internet over the next few years and much needed confidence in the MobileMe platform are the biggest barriers that Apple needs to overcome.

When will this happen? Snow Leopard is due in less than a year. I'm not sure but those 60 day extensons that Apple has just awarded its customers might take you into the MobileMe home accounts in late 2009.

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