In an internal e-mail sent to Apple employees this evening, Steve Jobs admitted that MobileMe was launched too early and "not up to Apple's standards." The e-mail, seen by Ars Technica, acknowledges MobileMe's flaws and what could have been done to better handle the launch. In addition to needing more time and testing, Jobs believes that Apple should have rolled MobileMe's services out slowly instead of launching it "as a monolithic service." For example, over-the-air iPhone syncing could have gone up initially, then web apps one by one (Mail, Calendar, etc.).
Jobs goes on. "It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store," he says. "We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence." We agree with that one.
Apple is learning a lot of lessons from its numerous MobileMe foibles, it seems, and has even reorganized the MobileMe team. For one, the entire group will now report to Eddy Cue (you may remember Cue's name showing up in numerous iTunes-related press releases). Cue will now lead all Internet-related services at Apple—including iTunes, the App Store, and now MobileMe—and will report directly to Steve Jobs.
"The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services," Jobs says. "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."
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