Why is .Mac so expensive???

[xtophercaa]

I got a .Mac account, and I have high hopes for it...but so far, I haven't really done much with it. As far as the price, I think it may boil down to perceived value and exclusivity. It's an impulse buy that feels like a membership. It's an easy upsell for them to do at the Apple Stores. You know, you've already shelled out for Apple Care, might as well throw in the .Mac too. I wish they'd at least give you a t-shirt or mousepad or something with it.

 

[eric]

too bad they just don't offer a month to month service. might think about it then - even though comcast offers me almost the same functionality.

 

[PowerBookG4]

I would not have it if it was month to month, because I simply don't want to worry about it ever month, the $100 at the beginning of the year means that I am done with it until next year. That makes everything really easy, and I wish that everything was like that. Phone bill: $2400 a year instead of $200 a month.

 

[eric]

that's what electronic payments are for - i don't worry about my car, electricity, gas, mortgage, cable, etc either.

 

[schweb]

Phone bill: $2400 a year instead of $200 a month.

Who are you talking to that you need to pay $200 a month for a phone?

 

[KoDorSean]

It is worth it to me. My wife and I use the mail and she uses the www site.. for less than $9 a month how can you beat it? what else out there offers what .mac does for less than $9 a month?

 

[steven11]

You can buy the boxed version today from Apple for $68.00. If you're thinking of picking up .Mac, I'd jump on that since it's 30% less than it normally is.

I'm even picking one up for my renewal.

Where did you see the 68.00 thing cuz I cannot locate it. Hey I'm sold just show me where to buy it

 

[ToddG]

This afternoon I'll get my first Apple in many years (my last was an Apple II+). It's a MA610LL (MBP 2.33 C2D).

I currently pay about $100 per year for 30G of storage and 750G of bandwidth though Bluehost. It's hosting all three of my domains.

Is there any way I'd benefit from a .mac account? Is there any kind of interoperability that will extend to my Bluehost account and those domains?

TIA ...

 

[Daddy Elmis]

since we're talking about .Mac and value, let me ask this question:

I know I can get an IMAP mail hosting account a lot of places much, much cheaper than .Mac. But can I sync my Entourage contacts and calendar through an IMAP host? I know my work does this with Exchange Server, and I'm no expert in this area of computer technology. My goals are to be able to have contacts, calendar and mail sync'd on the home computers (current 2, soon to be 3).

That's about the only benefit I see to .Mac. The iDisk isn't big enough to do much, I don't care about web posting, podcasting, etc. And frankly being tied to a @mac.com email domain is a detriment, not a benefit -- I want to use my own domain. It's rather amazing that an email domain has any "status" associated with it.

 

[Stephanella]

Well, I purchased it yesterday, following my near-brush with death of my data that had me shelling out for a new MacBook on the spot and has now left me with a paranoid fear that I will, sooner or later, lose valuable data unless I back-up pronto. It cost me £ 68 and I do not envisage to be using it for something other than sync and back-up but, as schweb says above, it all happens seamlessly and doesn't give you a reason to worry about compatibility and such other headaches... Plus, if I will finally free up some of my time to learn and use it properly I will probably jump at the opportunity to put all of my stuff online for people to enjoy and do something really interesting with it... I don't think it's expensive (heck, even in pounds!), but I do think that it entirely depends on how much it matters to *you*. Do you wanna fiddle for ever trying to find better packages and possibly encountering issues along the way, or are you happy to pay if you can, and go the easy route? I'm easy!

 

[fleurya]

Well, it doesn't take long to find a good deal. A simple Google search will pull up endless possibilities. For recommendations, CNET has some good reviews on hosters.

I suppose the biggest gripe for me is storage space and, probably, bandwidth. I mean, at a time when I am getting almost 3 gigs from Google and 1 gig from Yahoo for free, I think Apple could spare some more space.

Someone mentioned high cost of running servers, but I'm sure with the multitude of hosters out there, there are many with fewer users than .mac and they offer more space at less cost.

I know there's conveniences as some mentioned, but then I saw that for just 1 additional gig of space cost another 50 bucks! What is that all about? There's no convenience or other factors playing into that high price as far as I can tell. Come on, Steve, at least give us 5 extra or something. Throw a bone to your loyal users!!!

 

[ToddG]

Yeah, I get 30G space, 750G monthly bandwidth, and very easy Fantastico app loader from my host company for less than $100 a year.

It would be great if Apple provided (or even sold) an app that allowed you to port the .Mac functionality to another host's server.

 

[IronMac]

How is 8 bucks a month expensive? Yeah could use some more storage. But c'mon its 8 bucks.

 

[baggss]

Yeah, I get 30G space, 750G monthly bandwidth, and very easy Fantastico app loader from my host company for less than $100 a year.

It would be great if Apple provided (or even sold) an app that allowed you to port the .Mac functionality to another host's server.

I agree about the bandwidth and the space, I have a similar setup. Apples not going to sell the capability since then they would not be able to really sell their own service. The only reason to go to Apple is for the tools.

 

[fleurya]

How is 8 bucks a month expensive? Yeah could use some more storage. But c'mon its 8 bucks.

That's like saying" hey, it's only $3 a gallon for gas" when you can get it for $1.50, and you get 10 times the mile per gallon from the $1.50 gas. It's not that it's $8 a month, it's that you can get so much more for your money from other sources.

But I suppose as long as people keep buying it up, Steve Jobs doesn't have to worry about gouging them, kinda like how people complain about Bill Gates selling an inferior propduct, but everyone buys it without question.

 

[baggss]

That's like saying" hey, it's only $3 a gallon for gas" when you can get it for $1.50, and you get 10 times the mile per gallon from the $1.50 gas. It's not that it's $8 a month, it's that you can get so much more for your money from other sources.

But I suppose as long as people keep buying it up, Steve Jobs doesn't have to worry about gouging them, kinda like how people complain about Bill Gates selling an inferior propduct, but everyone buys it without question.

Not everyone is or wants to be technically savvy enough to have their own server. Yes it's easy, but that rout is not for everyone. The seamless integration with OSX, to the point of having the iDisk mount on the desktop, appeals to many who don't want to bother. It's not gouging, it's offering a service for the technically uninclined. I don't use it, for the reasons stated above, but that doesn't mean that nobody should.

 

[ToddG]

How is 8 bucks a month expensive? Yeah could use some more storage. But c'mon its 8 bucks.

Respectfully, this misses the point for many of us.

I already have my own domains. The functionality of .Mac doesn't mean a lot to me if it doesn't integrate with my existing domains. I'd absolutely love to have an iDisk on my desktop that was a transparent ftp to my hosting service. I'd certainly pay an extra $8 per month for it.

But I'm not going to pay anything for the service if it requires me to put all my files, photos, etc. on a new server under a completely different domain name. If .Mac was free I wouldn't use it.

"No, your current high speed internet isn't compatible with your Mac. But, if you just move all your belongings into this new house we'll sell you cheap ..."

 

[IronMac]

8 bucks for a suite of services is a steal in my opinion. Yeah its not a server with gobs of space and bandwith. But there is something to be said for paying for a convenience.

 

[Kash]

Hmm, I always figured 99 bucks a year was a bit steep for what seemed to be just a bit of backup and online storage. After reading through this thread, I might give the trial a shot and see if I find it useful enough to plop down the $8 a month.

 

[MacHeadCase]

Not everyone is or wants to be technically savvy enough to have their own server. Yes it's easy, but that rout is not for everyone. The seamless integration with OSX, to the point of having the iDisk mount on the desktop, appeals to many who don't want to bother. It's not gouging, it's offering a service for the technically uninclined. I don't use it, for the reasons stated above, but that doesn't mean that nobody should.

I do agree with this post and to me it explains why some people are tempted. I've used .Mac since it started way back when Apple was in financial trouble and the service was free. Then two years later Apple decided to charge for it. I had the impression that, while I wasn't buying a new computer from them every year, I was helping them out in a small way by paying for .Mac and didn't have the hassle of trying to find a good web host and/or server somewhere. Besides at the time I just didn't even have the knowledge to make a choice!

Now by having my blog on a friend's web space (DreamHost), having friends help me out and giving answers to my questions, I understand a bit better about all this stuff. But Apple has better uptime anyway even if it doesn't have all the disk space that DreamHost account has. In fact, .Mac is rock steady. The email service did have a couple of weeks of shakiness a few months ago but I kinda think Apple was adding features behind the scenes and it made the email service react pretty weird there for a time. Then I found out I was right when the Webmail thingy appeared.

Anyway this post of mine is just to say that there can be a lot of reasons why the .Mac price is right and it's not all based on bells and whistles. For some of us, it's just good ol' plain convenience and integration with Mac OS X.