ON APPLE'S INADEQUATE DOTMAC (Part II)

MAKE IT SO

Om Malik has a good post taking Apple's dotmac (aka .Mac) online subscription service to task.

  It's something I started to do a couple of months ago, but Om's piece is a more systematic critique of the ways in which Apple's dotMac service falls short relative to the competition.

As I read his piece, it reinforced my sense that Apple has a long way to go to become an "online" driven company from a "desktop" driven mind-set. 

One could argue that Microsoft has the same issue, as it tries to innovate with it's Microsoft Live initiatives.

Both could continue to take cues from Google and Yahoo! in terms of thinking about services that can be increasingly accessed from any device at any time.

As I asked in my original piece,

"I may be missing something, but where's the innovation in online services from Apple beyond iTunes?"

As Fred Wilson points out in a recent post, even Apple's iTunes make users jump through hoops like being able to only authorize five Macs at a time to share a user account at any given time.

And I know that's a restriction more driven by the music companies than Apple, but it underlines a core short-coming of Apple's vaunted music products and services...

That Apple's music products and services work greater if you have one Mac and one iPod, but if you want to mix and match more Macs and more iPods, you're quickly sinking in a sea of complexity of how to move, copy, mix, blend, and/or back-up different iTunes libraries. 

And that's the case even if it's just for ONE user. 

Add in the reality that most people have family members sharing Macs and iPods, and you may as well give up on the iPod and iTunes if you want to have any time for anything else.

Now before I get flamed by Apple fans, I know there are tons of ways to do all this. 

But my point is that they're ALL TOO COMPLEX for mainstream people, they take way too much time to figure out, with inadequate how-to documentation (both online and off), and assume that the user has tons of time on his/her hands to find the answers online by tons of online Googling, and digging, reading this forum message and that.

They shouldn't have to learn the ins and outs of these products and services.  They should just work the way they're supposed to.

Kind of like the way Google Sync does.  And I know I'm comparing Apples and oranges here, pun fully intended.

Comments

[Daniel Eran]

I did a series of articles on features Apple could borrow for .Mac:

What the Heck is .Mac?
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/2F6A8F7A-74DB-4E8B-9D38-F9D6554C376D.html

10 Reasons Why Apple Can Kickstart Web 2.0
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/F716ECC1-AF23-472D-BD10-628657EB88E6.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 1: Hyperblog the Web
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/6A50F25B-9E50-45B4-AA17-F145B5D091EE.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 2: A Reputation System
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/4B9CA8BB-C0F6-4E7C-99CB-8D53DBDD1864.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 3: .Macster!
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/A592FAA3-5AAF-44DF-A3BA-7FE0D9D77A19.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 4: Secure Identity Services
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/7293E00B-32AB-43F0-A951-6DA440B811D6.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 5: A .Mac Marketplace
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/3D0F565D-90A3-431D-AF22-90651C4F4A4F.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 6: Add Privacy Management
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/8D7E56DB-7F5F-42ED-AD7A-BCB105332B7E.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 7: Enhance & Encourage Sharing
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/B4B11701-923D-4DC1-B577-C667F5B76371.html

Fixing .Mac - Idea 8: Subscription Music
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/Home/2485FBF2-2E2B-4200-8CAA-5279AD561AA5.html

- Daniel Eran
www.roughlydrafted.com

[CynicalGeek]

I am a born-again Mac user and have not used .Mac yet. I also have never used the Windows Media Personal License either (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/drm/pluwiz.aspx)

Having said that, at first blush it appears that the Microsoft solution is server-side and allows 10 devices to be used for playing a DRM tune. While this is double the number of devices that iTunes lets you play, I still won't hand over my music licensing to Microsoft.

I guess the long and the short of it is that there is always going to be a imbalance between copy protection and ease of use. The DRM adopters have to figure out how to allow us to use our music that we paid for everywhere in the house. Apple figures that you'll be fine with 5 devices, Microsoft doubles that number and would love to see us have 10 devices in the house accessing the same music. ;)

Now I'm off to read Daniel's suggestions for .Mac. I should have read them before posting, oh well.

[Hunter]

I guess the long and the short of it is that there is always going to be a imbalance between copy protection and ease of use.