Jobs’ Full FailMe Email Surfaces
Yesterday we gave you a taste of Stevo’s apologetic internal email to his troops regarding the mess that is MobileMe. As you recall, Jobs essentially states that Apple screwed the pooch in rushing the service out when it was most certainly not ready for prime time. The email has since been leaked in its entirety and provides an interesting insight into Jobs’ internal apology. Yes, leaked and internal are both in italics. Why? As has been suggested, this is a really great way to indirectly apologize to customers without having to make public statements and go through traditional media outlets. We’re not saying this email was leaked intentionally but… Ok, maybe we are.
Team,
The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour. There are several things we could have done better:
– MobileMe was simply not up to Apple’s standards – it clearly needed more time and testing.
– Rather than launch MobileMe as a monolithic service, we could have launched over-the-air syncing with iPhone to begin with, followed by the web applications one by one – Mail first, followed 30 days later (if things went well with Mail) by Calendar, then 30 days later by Contacts.
– It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store. We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence.
We are taking many steps to learn from this experience so that we can grow MobileMe into a service that our customers will love. One step that I can share with you today is that the MobileMe team will now report to Eddy Cue, who will lead all of our internet services – iTunes, the App Store and, starting today, MobileMe. Eddy’s new title will be Vice President, Internet Services and he will now report directly to me.
The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services. And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year.
Steve
We have to wonder: Do you think Steve currently uses MobileMe himself? How about the rest of the Apple higher ups?
Tags: Apple, Email, MobileMe, PIM, Rumors, Services, steve jobs, Sync
I believed the letter all the up to the point when he wrote:
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This Eddie Cue guy is only a VP???? I sincerely doubt this. Someone screwed up when they wrote this letter. Should have done their homework to make it more believable. LOL
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Hahaha. too funny. Steveoo
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Steve-o doesn’t use MobileMe. They’re probably using something reliable for their communications. Like Exchange.
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I don’t see how this was not meant for the public audience.
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I remember a minor scandal a few years back when it came to light that Apple was hosting some of it’s web pages on MS Server software and pc’s. Why not Mac OSX Server and XServes? They mumbles something about legacy systems and then quickly standardized to Apple stuff. Gave me a chuckle.
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BGR
Fair and Balanced
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What does it matter if it was or wasn’t intended to be leaked? What does it change? Care to prove the innocence in this regard [leaking info for damage control] for MS, Moto, Palm, etc, etc? Didn’t think so. How does Apples’ record of dealing with development issues compare to that of those who have owned the mobile industry for a generation?
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why are you so butt hurt backbeat?
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I do not think they are using MobileMe. They probably have either a home brew system or plain SMTP/POP servers.
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It’s likely that the internal people don’t use mobile me. Anyone even implying that they do has likely never worked at a large IT shop.
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I always wondered what Apple’s work culture was like. Is it creative, creative, creative… stress-driven madness, organic or linear? Anyone from Apple Corp care to share? Just wondering.
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No, Blackberry’s… Okay, maybe Blackberry’s on a BES…
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Olga,
Obviously you don’t know Steve. Steve has a temper. One second he will praise you as a genius and the next minute belittle you and reduce you to tears.
Apple tries to be new-wave hip eco-chic like Google. I’ve never worked there though.
I used to be head of IT for a large pharma company - very other-side-of-the-spectrum from Apple/Google. Ended up retiring and became a firefighter for less stress. Yeah, it was that stressful of a job. Mainly because they allowed business majors to make IT decisions. BIG MISTAKE.
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^Still pimpin’ that lame internet-worthy CV, eh Mikey? Besides, there’s quite a bit of difference between a civil servant doing the job they were hired for and a real hero.
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How long before the Apple genius’ realize that MobileMe is a failure not because of technical reasons, but one of marketplace. Why the hell would people pay $99/year for e-mail/calendar/whatever, when companies like Google give it away for free.
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I certainly won’t argue that the launch was a disaster….but I’m a subscriber and think the service is excellent. It works great for me.
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THE WHOLE PHONE WAS RUSHEDD
where is da ichat? or evn video? or atleast MMS messaginn?
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