back to article Jobs in 'Apple not perfect' shock

An internal email sent by Steve Jobs admits that MobileMe was "not up to Apple's standards" and that the company tried to do too much too quickly. The shock missive, which tips the world upside down for Mactopians, goes on to admit that they've still got a lot to learn about internet services. The details are being reported …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Horns

    Could have been better?!

    Couldn't have been much worse!

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quiet here, innit?

    A fanboi desert... just me and the tumbleweed.

  3. Chad H.
    Flame

    but the thing is

    That's what they did do with iPhone 1 and osx 10.5, and sure, maybe there was a little negativity at the delay, but both products clearly benefited from the delay.

    Was the person with sense on "vacation" that week?

  4. Andrew Roberts
    Jobs Halo

    news to the media maybe...

    Actually Apple fans know Apple aren't perfect, we've been using .Mac for years and that was always ****.

    Its just they're *generally* better than the competition in most things.

    It's all relative...

  5. Charles King
    Dead Vulture

    Remember all the hoo-haa about Jobs' health?

    Well here's the confirmation. He's obviously seriously ill, or has been taken over by an alien mind-control device.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I Nuked My MobileMe

    The only reason I keep the sub is because I'm addicted to the email address.

    I tried using the IMAP mail for a few days after getting my iPhone, and it sucked like a Dyson. It kept re-animating dead messages (including lots of spam) after I hade deleted or moved them, it kept losing copies of my outbound mail and it was S L O W A S M O L A S S E S.

    I set up a new IMAP account on my VPS, and all works well.

  7. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Alien

    One step and one day at a time .....and no cheating, always moves one forward.

    "Couldn't have been much worse!" ..... By Anonymous Coward Posted Tuesday 5th August 2008 12:07 GMT

    That was a nasty smack, AC. Give Steve a break, for Goodness sake. Conditions down on Earth at the moment are dodgy for everyone.

    And who does he bounce ideas off.... to see if they can Fly for Real?

  8. Alexis Vallance

    Oh dear

    At least they admit MobileMe has been crap.

    MS still think Vista is the bees knees!!

  9. Chris
    Paris Hilton

    @alexis

    Yeah, they admit it 'internally', this is a leaked email remember, no public admission. I'm sure MS know that Vista blows big time too, we just haven't seen the leaked emails to confirm it (not that we need confirmation of course)

    Paris, cause she knows how to turn blowing into a positive

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Nearly right

    Steve actually said :

    "It was a mistake to launch MobileMe , iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store."

    Paris - at least she's occasionally useful

  11. Mike Groombridge

    damn

    i was almost ready to forgive apple for all the smug this is the first time some one done this when it's not. and the shiny means it's better approach to everything when i read the title thinking it was a public Apologie but it's not no forgiveness for apple for the smug

  12. whoami
    Flame

    Wait a minute

    Is it me or is that the sound of fanbois going into a state of cardiac arrest?

    Anyways, after all this bad press, they could just make the stuff better and show it to a bunch of people under the code name "Sahara" You know like ...

    BTW, I think this is confirmation that Steve Jobs is "not the man he used to be"!!

  13. Louis Cowan
    Alert

    Mike

    You just gave my brain a BSOD. Congratulations.

  14. e
    Alert

    Poor appleworms

    5 hours, and still no one has come up with a way to spin this as further proof that Apple is the Greatest Company EVAR!!!!!?

    Surely the community that would have us believe that the one-button mouse and compatibility with approximately 1% of software available are signs of Apples clear superiority can find a way to describe losing customer emails and frequently being inaccessible as features rather than failures.

    Or maybe they all bricked their iPhones installing the latest update without first disabling Flight Mode, so they can't get through.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    WTF is MobileMe anyway?

    Do I have to be an Appletard to have heard of it?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    I speak on behalf of the Apple International Fanboy Alliance

    We are monitoring your comments, and can promise that your baiting will not go unpunished.

    We feel it would be inappropriate to comment at this time.

    We are currently considering our options and will issue a joint statement at a suitable time. Watch your back haters.

  17. Valan Chan

    Isn't this the norm?

    Most software is released crap and fix over several months. it started with shareware utilities then games and now it is the big apps and OS.

  18. Sean Baggaley

    CEO Admits Mistakes Shock!

    If only politicians could be as humble.

    In fairness, I've not been affected by MobileMe -- I don't have an iPhone and, while I'd like one at some point, I'm quite happy to wait until things stabilise -- so Apple's "woes" weren't an issue. Nevertheless, it's good to see CEOs admitting they're only human and that they can make mistakes occasionally.

    I'm a Mac user. I like good design and companies that focus on providing quality user interfaces. I'm weird like that.

    I don't think I qualify as a Macolyte: I'm quite willing to state that Apple aren't perfect. But then, I've used more operating systems and interfaces over the past 26 years than most people probably knew existed. (Research Machines' "Cassette Operating System" on their 380Z, anyone? CP/M? GEM?) I'm therefore extremely OS-agnostic. Currently, I prefer Apple. Five years ago, I preferred Windows. Tomorrow? Who knows? Right now, they're *all* shit. Some are just a little less shit than others.

    Steve Jobs has presided over not only OS X's evolution, but also its predecessor: NeXTSTEP / OpenSTEP. So that's TWO successful, innovative GUIs built on Open Source foundations in the same time that that the GNU/Linux community, in their rampaging hordes, have achieved... er... uhm... what, exactly?

  19. Andy Taylor

    @amanfrommars

    Perhaps you're the one not feeling yourself - that post made almost complete sense!

  20. Philip
    Jobs Halo

    @Sean - don't feed the Pavlovians

    Good post, but you're wasting your words on here mate. The amazing thing about El Reg Win/Lin/comment/ards is that they consistently and reflexively wheel out the (by now rather old and tired) *fanboi* accusations at Mac users every time there's an article with the slightest whiff of Macintosh content - when it seems to me that they're the hysterical ones. Oh well.

  21. Graham Lockley

    @Sean

    Your OS experience roll-call is similar to mine (chuck in a brief experience of Flex on a Dragon 64 amongst others) but our conclusions are happily different. No I dont care for OSX, I find it iritating and patronising, but happily the world is big enough for both of us :)

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Jobs Halo

    Must be just me then?

    I had no problems at all with the transition from .mac to mobile me. I followed their instructions, backed up and it went rather well. But then again, I'm probably not part of the crowd that has no real friends and seems to want to be checking their email every 5 minutes? Then whine when the service hiccups, only to be told when it resumes that there are no new messages....LOL. Really ! Apples launches an upgraded service, get a few solvable hiccups, which they fix. Big Deal. Nothing to see here, move along please.

  23. Adrian Esdaile
    Coat

    @ If only politicians could be as humble.

    Mmmm, Steve's humbleness is blinding me.

    Enough humble pie to feed the starving kiddies in Africa.

    The apex, nay, PINNACLE of humble-dom.

    Minions: you may now worhsip.

    Ta, mine's the asbestos lined one, thanks.

  24. NT
    Flame

    @Philip ("don't feed the Pavlovians")

    "...*fanboi* accusations at Mac users every time there's an article with the slightest whiff of Macintosh content - when it seems to me that they're the hysterical ones. Oh well."

    You don't think there's something slightly ironic about your obvious strength of feeling while you're holding forth about the others being hysterical? "They started it" and "no, *you* are" really belong in the school playground along with the words "fanboi" and "hater". Aren't we supposed to be intelligent professionals, with jobs and lives and stuff?

    Seriously, guys - the whole Mac-vs-PC thing is worn out. Over years of repetition it's cycled itself out of any kind of importance. It's disappeared up its own arse. Nobody gives a toss any more. Leastways (more accurately), there's no rational reason why any half-sensible person *should* give a toss. Pick a platform, any platform. Whichever one does best what you want it to do. This is just like many other choices we have to make in life. The only difference is that for some reason this particular choice leads us to anger and paranoia. I'm not going to bother appealing for everyone to Just Get Along - but could we at least manage to get some sort of a grip on reality?

  25. amanfromMars Silver badge
    Paris Hilton

    MAD Yes ..... Insane No.

    "Perhaps you're the one not feeling yourself - that post made almost complete sense!" ...... By Andy Taylor Posted Tuesday 5th August 2008 17:32 GMT

    Andy,

    They almost all make complete sense when you are privy to their contexts, for some of them work across any number of Parallel Running Realities. And I share "almost all" so that the smug arrogance which all too frequently accompanies any thought of anything being a solution rather than just another tangent to further XXXXPlore, is put in its place and avoided.

    And I am further encouraged by your understanding. Thanks for the Feedback, IT is Invaluable and much Appreciated :-)

    PS. You may find that revisiting earlier Thoughts Shared, which one may have at first sighting, considered as NonSense and were Misunderstood, were, in the Light of Digital Progress and Virtual Reality, more GBIrish for the Stealthy Steganographic Purpose of Sleeper Code Injection/dDeep Hard Core Kernel Base Infiltration ......... for Virtual AI Proxy TakeOver/MakeOver of Simpleton Command and Control Protocols/Major General Infrastructures.

    PPS. Should that prove Difficult 42 Presently Understand, please File away for Future Reference and Enlightenment, as more of the Program and ITs ProgramMIng Bites and Leverages Mutually Assisted Direction.

    And Paris because ...... well, what's not to Follow :-0 :-) which you wouldn't like? Godisagoddess ur2die4 works in every Plane Dimension, Surely, Surely?

  26. Scott Mckenzie

    No Issues here either..

    ...on all 13 accounts we use.

    Still not rolled Vista out, or Linux, anywhere though... hmmm.

  27. Law
    Alien

    @ amanfromMars #1

    IMPOSTER!!! How dare you use that name, and make readable sentences.

    @ amanfromMars #2

    That's more like it! ;)

  28. cp

    1.0.0 adopters

    BFD

    I never sympathize with 1.0.0 adopters. yuz takes yer chances...

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