Apr 24

I've had a MobileMe account since it was .Mac and free. And while I'll make occasional use of its "extra" features - I really use it for only email and iChat. And I have iLife and iWork too. So I could use it more. But it's just not simple enough.

Apple should purchase Posterous.com (before Google does).

Posterous.com makes blogging simple. Send an email with text, pictures, or video and you've created a blog post. Yes, you can also log-in and type a blog post too, but in today's mobile world, why would you? Compare this to Apple's blogging solution (that interacts with MobileMe or other hosts), their application iWeb. The big problem, it's an application that needs to run on my Mac. It doesn't nest well with Apple's march into mobile computing – I can't use it from my iPhone or iPad or from a PC even.

 

A solution like posterous.com (which can also be linked to your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts) makes it so simple and works beautifully from any mobile platform. It seems like an elegant solution that could benefit MobileMe's offering. It would also help to make the $99 yearly fee a little more palatable, since paying that much for email and some web storage is a bit expensive comparatively.

Apple should purchase Dropbox.com (again, before Google does).

Dropbox.com is a simple method to sync or share files between multiple computers – and it can span platforms too. That is, it works well on Mac, PC, and Linux. I've written previously about my delight with Dropbox, how it works, and the advantages it offers, in my blog post Dropbox Rocks File Syncing, Sharing, and Backup Extraordinaire. 

 

Again, I think Dropbox's ease of use and cross platform nature would be a boon to MobileMe's so-so built-in syncing. It would make better use of the online storage available on MobileMe and add an extra incentive to again shell out the money for MobileMe. Dropbox already has an app for the iPhone (and others I think) that allows you to manage your online files, share your photos and such – so again, it fits perfectly into the vision of mobile, anywhere computing that Apple is moving towards.

 

Yes, Apple could extend MobileMe's features to include these types of services - and most likely, they're going to start offering online backups or storage of items purchased through iTunes (based on their LaLa acquisition) but it's not always required that everything be invented and built by Apple. What's important, that if Apple buys a company, that it remolds it and improves it to the point that it embodies Apple's philosophies. It's proven it can do this in the past. And I think moving forward, with Apple's piles of cash-on-hand, it might be a good time to swoop up a few choice start-ups and add to their online services - before a competitor does.

 

I'll also just mention, I've found it funny, that every company I become enamored seems to end up purchased by Google. I liked Urchin, Postini, and ReCaptcha....and Google owns them all now. So while I'm not saying Google will buy Posterous or Dropbox, I think Apple should buy these or companies like these in the near future, before someone else does.

 

And should anybody care:

My mobileme website williamlevins.com and my posterous blog williamlevins.posterous.com