Cupertino (CA) - Apple today said it will give away two additional months of free MobileMe service to both paid and free trial account users, on top of previously announced free service extensions. Users who had to deal with MobileMe’s rocky launch and its service outages are compensated with a total of 90 days of free service worth $24.75.

In a new effort to calm MobileMe customers, Apple decided to offer 60 days of free service to the accounts of MobileMe subscribers who signed up before August 19 at 12:00 am PDT. In an email sent to MobileMe subscribers earlier today, Apple pledged to "turn this around," alluding to widely reported hiccups and ongoing issues with the service. "We know that MobileMe's launch has not been our finest hour," the company wrote.

"We have already made many improvements to MobileMe, but we still have many more to make. To recognize our users' patience, we are giving every MobileMe subscriber as of today a free 60 day extension. This is in addition to the one month extension most subscribers have already received."

If Steve Jobs' leaked email to employees is any indication, the problems surrounding MobileMe will stay with users for several more months "We will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year," Jobs wrote. Apple’s decision to add free service is conclusive as a service that isn’t ready for prime time is typically called a beta service and is usually not offered for a fee.

If you were one of the early MobileMe adopters and paid to become a member, the latest 60-day extension will be added to the previous 30-day extension, resulting in 90- days of free service or a $24.75 value. If you were among those users affected by Apple’s credit card authorization hiccup, the 60-day extension adds to the previous 30 day extension and a 60 day free trial period for five months of free service. The latest extension applies to both paid and trial account users and should show up in the Account tab of the MobileMe web interface soon.

Ooops....

Aug 19, 2008 16:22     

There be a worm in my APPLE!!!
Bob report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3