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Oct 27 - Nov 3,2002 |
That transformation to the .Mac
Apple's former free iTools Internet services expands for paying customers
By Alessandro Cancian
Originally Published: 2002-10-06
Over 33,000 people signed the open letter (www.pet-itiononline.com/iTool/) sent from Apple users to Steve Jobs, CEO of the company, contesting the decision of imposing a fee ($99.95) on iTools services - now rechristened .Mac - which initially were bundled with Mac OS X. Since the announcement, given at the latest MacWorld in New York, the news has raised controversy among Apple fans, and the debates in online forums and newsgroups between supporters and opposers of the decision has become quite vehement.
Initially, iTools users were given until the end of the day September 30 to pay a discounted annual fee of $49.95 or lose their iTools account, including all information stored in their e-mail, files stored online and Web pages they had created using Apple's HomePage feature.
A few months following the announcement, numbers seem to side with Apple; according to the company, as many as 180,000 users have already subscribed to .Mac services since last July. Even though the number of subscriptions is much lower than those 2.2 million registered on iTools accounts, one must consider that most users signed up for more than one free account.
The suite includes 100 MB of Webspace integrated with Mac Os X Finder (iDisk), web hosting for personal homepages, photo albums in iPhoto and calendars in iCal, e-mail (15MB) with IMAP, POP and web-based access, and antivirus and backup software.
Moreover, in an effort to boost subscriptions the company was compelled to offer some incentives that were initially lacking, such as 100 free prints of digital photos and a game. They even extended the previous deadline to October 14.
There are several alternatives to the Apple offer, including one from Macrefugee (www.macrefugee.com) dedicated precisely to all those who reacted negatively to the birth of .Mac. For the same amount charged by Apple, the web hosting company offers double Web space, 50MB of e-mail and up to 10 e-mail accounts. For those who'd rather remain in a free environment, the possibility to combine e-mail and web hosting in one service looks quite remote.
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