You gotta give it to Steve Jobs and Apple, if you are going to launch cool new products, you might as well take on the whole global IT sector at the same time.
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| courtesy: www.guardian.co.uk |
Along with launching iPhone 2.0, the company has rebranded its .Mac online service today, adding syncing features aimed at iPhone and PC users in addition to the Mac.
Called MobileMe, the new service offers push e-mail, calendars, and contacts for users, keeping that information up-to-date whether they’re viewing a computer or an iPhone.
The web-based MobileMe will work with the iPhone’s mail, calendar, and contacts applications in addition to working with Mail, iCal, and Address book on the Mac and Outlook on the PC – in other words, a direct challenge to Microsoft’s territory.
Some have dubbed this feature as ‘Exchange for the masses,” and with its new interface, it will have a similar experience when using the Web applications as with desktop software.
For example, users will be able to drag and drop calendar events as in iCal and narrow down contacts as in Address Book. The e-mail software also works a lot like Mail, letting users drag messages into folders and includes a quick reply feature that pops up a box to input and send your reply to a message.
Although it has not been widely reported, all these features combined also could have the affect of stymieing Google’s push to launch its online Office equivalent, which will basically combine email, database, calendar, word processing and storage services online.
So MobileMe with its interface to mail, calendar, and contacts applications and working with Mail, iCal, and Address book and Outlook can in some ways be thought of as a pincer attack, trying to outflank both Microsoft and Google simultaneously.
Steve Jobs/Apple 1: Rest Of World 0.
