This is so dead on. Syncing is the only reason I’m still there. And I’m helpless without it. As a developer, I have an embarrassing number of computers - home, office, seeds, loaners, etc. and am so used to being able to have my bookmarks, Yojimbo, and contacts (in that order) always there I simply can’t do without it. In my opinion, syncing is a platform builder and more or less unique (at least in execution). It is a clear advantage to having a Mac and it would also be an incentive to developers to provide SyncServices. As for email and chat, there are obviously great free services for those. I use my mac.com as my personal email but that’s a relatively minor inconvenience.

iWeb, for me, is a massive step back since it killed the homepage.mac.com iPhoto integration. All I wanted was a quick easy way to post photos. iWeb makes that entire process manual, and oddly is not as flexible. Therefore I now simply run Gallery2 on my home iMac Core Duo. And blog with Serendipity. Syncing is, sadly, crack to me so they’ll keep getting my money until I can find a better solution. Strange that it’s so contrary to their normal strategy (stressing integration and how seamless everything is).

Agreed. As with iPhoto and iWeb you can almost see the fight between the development group and the .Mac business group. I’d much prefer my Apple desktop apps to have better syncing - without plugins - with common solutions like Flickr or delicious, as they have emerged.

The one thing that .Mac is allegedly good for is withstanding a slashdotting, but how many typical home users need that kind of scalability from their hosting provider?

This comment will probably mean the end to this (relatively) sweet deal but…

Since having a .Mac account since before it was $100/yr. I have only once paid $100 for my account. (Forgive me; I was but a poor newbie at the time.)

I, too, have a hard time justifying the cost for the few features I use but I’ve made it a little easier on my psyche by buying a boxed version of .Mac every year at the lowest price I can find at the time. (Usually the price is $20-25 off the retail price of $100.) The activation key included in the box can be used to extend an already activated .Mac account by one year.

It may not be the best use of my time but it has become a pretty simple process and you need to get a good deal now and then to stay sane. 8-)

I am looking into other similarly priced plans that provide more website functionality like cgi scripts and form processing. I guess if I can’t find a retail box next year I may make the switch.

I have been a .Mac subscriber for 3 years now and everytime I think about quitting, it seems like something better “might” be on the horizon. Apple has added features to iLife over the years that only work well and easily for .Mac subscribers (although, in reality, I’ve never gotten Photocasts to work and iWeb-pages don’t work that well). But I always get the feeling that things will soon get better with the “next” release, in this case iLife 07. For instance, what if Apple decides to lasso other functionality from iTunes or iPhoto into .Mac? Leave now and change everything (email!) only to have to start again? Damn you Steve Jobs! I’m hooked!

[…] Merlin Mann has a post on 43Folders concerning the repackaging of Apple’s .Mac web offering.  I’m currently a .Mac subscriber and have been for a couple of years, but I’m undecided if I’ll renew my subscription again. […]

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve always wondered why .Mac isn’t free. They could easily charge a premium for backup storage (I’ve seen prices as low as $5 per month for 40 GB—Apple could charge $5-10 for increments of 10 GB and laugh all the way to the bank). But, Apple would reap torrents of goodwill, customer relationship warm fuzzies, plus considerable upsell opportunities. On top of all that, I’d be stoked to backup all my files and esp. iTunes content automagically. Wow, that’d be cool.

I disagree.

I use all the time or like being able to do… 1. iDisk - The system integration is great. 2. Backup - generallly to iDisk (janky? non…) 3. syncing across my four macs- flippin’ marvellous. 4. Having my bookmarks and addressbook on any computer that can access the net. 5. MacMail - I like it. the improvements are good, I especially like being able to use it to access other accounts too. 6. iWeb - yikes… I know… but a website my wife can edit too, without my involvement… now that’s priceless.

The other stuff I don’t really go near… My particular bugaboo is Groups (useless because only .Mac addresses can access, too much hassle) They should permit domain name linkage, being able to have www.mycompany.com point to your .Mac home address would be great.

Janky is a new word to me. From the context though it sounds pretty perjorative.

Which is odd really. Backup is the only reason I have a .Mac account. $AU150/year is a lot to pay though…

If I used two or more Macs I reckon iSync could be useful. Everything else is sheer fluff.

if i’m right, in 10 years i would have paid 1000 dollars for .mac

Dang. When you put it that way, it does seem kind of nuts.

And I agree. I think email accounts can start as these low-threshold things, but in time, you’re very reluctant to risk abandoning an address and all the people that know it as your primary contact. And that’s a real hook for whoever that account is with.

Slightly related: this is a good reason to ALWAYS hang your own domain on a hosted account from day one. I’ve been off TypePad for a year, and I still see, via referrers, how many people are navigating here from the manual redirect pages I built. Dumb 2-YO decision to ever have anything but my own domain.

a few months ago, when i bought my first mac, the salesperson was pushing hard for me to get .mac. but, as i told him, most people want e-mail services to be something they use for a long time. no one wants to constantly switch to brand new e-mail providers (this is different from having multiple accounts with multiple providers b/c those accounts are still of long standing). if i’m right, in 10 years i would have paid 1000 dollars for .mac (assuming no price increases). even the salesman had to blink at hearing that.