Wednesday, July 16, 2008
MobileMe does not push
Sometimes marketing goes too far. Even the pros make mistakes. Apple today has written a note to the users, apologizing for the "snag", adding that "the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially".Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices.Now, the Register went a bit further than Apple. First of all:
Email is managed through IMAP, and strictly speaking is pulled by polling the IMAP servers every minute, though that gives a reasonable impression of being pushed.Wow, polling email is not really push. Not even close. Everyone in our market knows it... If you want to be a competitor of RIM or even ActiveSync, you should know it. Push is push. Now ActiveStink (as the Apple spokesperson for MobileMe once called it) on the iPhone does not stink anymore, right?
The Register adds more:
But changes made using the desktop application are not instantly or automatically reflected on the iPhone or within The Cloud. Such changes need to wait for a synchronisation process, a lag of up to 15 minutes, before they are propagated between the platforms. Not only that but anyone trying to use some of the more advanced IMAP capabilities, such as the APPEND command, will find the MobileMe service unaware that any changes have been made to their e-mail account, at least until a good-old SMTP delivery triggers notification.Ok, this is not even close to push...
This is what you get with MobileMe:
- No push
- Support for only .me email addresses (what about the other billions of email addresses out there?)
- Support for only the iPhone (what about all the other 3B phones out there?)
- No notes support (I know, this looks small but it is big for many)
- $99 taken out of your pocket every year
Oooh, and yes, I almost forgot: you can build your own MobileMe with Funambol software :-)) Open Source. Or you can give us a call if you are a service provider or a device manufacturer. And we know what push means ;-)
Posted by Fabrizio at 09:58
7 Comments:
Mordy said...
Bravo!
Well said, Fabrizio.
Now, there's just that little issue of people complaining my.funambol isn't really "push" either. And doesn't the desktop client still sync on intervals for funambol?
Hmmm...
Comment Posted at 10:03
Fabrizio said...
Hi Mordy,
my.funambol can't be push on email because we act as a gateway between your device and your email provider (who does not provide push). When deployed at an email provider (such as 1&1), Funambol provides true push.
MobileMe acts as an email provider... so it should push...
fabrizio
Comment Posted at 05:52
Mobile Me IS A REAL PUSH email service.
With my phone connected via GPRS and Wifi, I've sniffed all the Wifi trafic from the phone.
Apple is using Sun Messenging services with advanced commands like LITERAL+.
When the iPhone sleeps, the Wifi connection is closed. If I send a mail to my @me.com address, the iPhone wakes up and connects to IMAP server through Wifi. So, some type of notification (SMS, Wap push ...) is sent from Apple's servers to the iPhone over the air. It looks like P-IMAP.
Comment Posted at 01:34
Sean said...
All-in-all, I think Apple has done a poor job in the design and deployment of MobileMe. I'm an avid Windows user/supporter, but I am seriously considering a change to Macintosh because I admit that it's kind of "cool". Then I get a slap back to reality reminding me that Microsoft for all their faults (they certainly have plenty) develops software for a more “open” environment where you have a myriad of hardware platforms (just because PC is Intel based does not mean it’s standard) and a myriad of third-party software applications. Apple has the luxury of developing software for a far more “closed” environment where they control most of the components.
Now comes MobileMe where Apple is designing a solution that is marketed as working with Mac’s, PC’s and mobile devices, not to mention that they’re providing a hosted solution where they have to properly design for scaling as well as provide reliable uptime and disaster recovery. Well Apple, welcome to the hell Microsoft has to deal with. Oh and by the way, when I saw the keynote speech when the Apple executive introduced MobileMe and referred to Microsoft’s ActiveSync as ActiveStink...what a childish remark. Too bad Apple didn’t invest more effort into making MobileMe an awesome product and beat Microsoft in that arena versus name calling.
You probably sense my anger. Now I don’t want to bash Apple just for the sake of bashing Apple. I want MobileMe to be a great application with all the features you find in gmail, yahoo mail and hotmail plus the features that make it “Exchange for the rest of us”. Apple has disappointed me.
Comment Posted at 20:30
Sean said...
All-in-all, I think Apple has done a poor job in the design and deployment of MobileMe. I'm an avid Windows user/supporter, but I am seriously considering a change to Macintosh because I admit that it's kind of "cool". Then I get a slap back to reality reminding me that Microsoft for all their faults (they certainly have plenty) develops software for a more “open” environment where you have a myriad of hardware platforms (just because PC is Intel based does not mean it’s standard) and a myriad of third-party software applications. Apple has the luxury of developing software for a far more “closed” environment where they control most of the components.
Now comes MobileMe where Apple is designing a solution that is marketed as working with Mac’s, PC’s and mobile devices, not to mention that they’re providing a hosted solution where they have to properly design for scaling as well as provide reliable uptime and disaster recovery. Well Apple, welcome to the hell Microsoft has to deal with. Oh and by the way, when I saw the keynote speech when the Apple executive introduced MobileMe and referred to Microsoft’s ActiveSync as ActiveStink...what a childish remark. Too bad Apple didn’t invest more effort into making MobileMe an awesome product and beat Microsoft in that arena versus name calling.
You probably sense my anger. Now I don’t want to bash Apple just for the sake of bashing Apple. I want MobileMe to be a great application with all the features you find in gmail, yahoo mail and hotmail plus the features that make it “Exchange for the rest of us”. Apple has disappointed me.
Comment Posted at 20:31
Rajiv said...
You're right. I'm having serious problems with my Nokia N95 8GB phone. Everytime I try to access mail through my GPS enabled phone MobileMe has the same answer...'Browser Not Supported'. Apple has to look at this problem seriously and resolve it quickly.
