Cupertino (CA) - Apple's new MobileMe cloud service has been hit with a series of unexpected performance and reliability issues that spoiled the Friday launch. While the company struggles to iron out various issues it is finally stepping forward to acknowledge problems. In an email letter sent out to all MobileMe users, Apple says that the .Mac to MobileMe transition was "a lot rockier than we had hoped."

In a somewhat surprising move, Apple said that it will reimburse all MobileMe subscribers for its service problems with a 30-day extension of the service, which translates into a value of about $8.25 to users.

"We want to apologize to our loyal customers and express our appreciation for their patience by giving all current subscribers an automatic 30-day extension to their MobileMe subscription free of charge. Your extension will be reflected in your account settings within the next few weeks," Apple said in an email sent to MobileMe users. At the time of writing, TG Daily's own MobileMe account did not show the announced extension.

Apple claims it ironed out bugs, stating that the web applications are now running smoothly. "Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My Mac, and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately we have worked through those problems and the web apps are now up and running."

We noticed that the web interface is now about as fast as you would expect, but there are still many annoying quirks. Also, the company is still transitioning .Mac users to MobileMe and it has yet to upgrade some MobileMe features with more capabilities and provide a replacement for some .Mac features that it quietly killed.

Analysts are welcoming the move in order to preserve a tight relationship with its customers. “They really did the right thing, in the right way," said Jupiter Research's vice president and research director Michael Gartenberg. "First acknowledging the problems and then offering a gesture of goodwill. It’s not important whether you have glitches or not, it’s important how you deal with them."

It is our opinion that Apple should have stepped up during the weekend at the latest, when the service was worst hit with problems and offer an apology. Saying sorry is one thing, saying it in a timely manner another. And, it is important to note that Apple has yet to provide information how and when it plans to refund the excessive trial-version authorization charges of $100.