Following the announcement of the new iPhone 3G is the shiny new web based system to organise email, contacts, photos and appointments, called MobileMe. This is direct competition to web based services like GMail and Windows Live, but with the branding finish Apple are so good at. It provides all iPhone users that are not part of an organisation using Exchange with Push technology that keeps all your computers in sync over the air.
Some of you may not know that Apple actually had a go at a mass email service before, it was called .Mac but as you can imagine it only really appealed to users with a Mac, could of been the name perhaps? So with the developments surrounding the iPhone, Apple have timed this very well, reducing the price of the iPhone 3G and tagging on a new service that compliments the device so well, introducing Exchange support, making the whole package more appealing, more affordable and more compatible with everyone.
The logo itself is not bad, it is fit for purpose but not really inspiring. It is similar to the Windows Me logo, Windows Millenium Edition was a special version of Windows 95 released to mark the new Millenium in 2000. The ‘Me’ is very similar, but because the MobileMe logo doesn’t stand on it’s own, it probably won’t matter.
I will be keeping an eye on the MobileMe brand. Apple get branding so right, and to be honest it would be very difficult to get anything wrong here, they have the existing ‘mother’ brand of Apple to support the new one, they have a service people want or even need depending on how much of an iFan you are, so it’s safe to say MobileMe is going to be big. I will be looking to learn from how the brand is presented to the public, how they take advantage of the user base in terms of monetizing the web app when it is launched, following the success of the iPod service, iTunes.