Steve Jobs Acknowledges MobileMe Missteps [Updated]
Ars Technica reports that Steve Jobs sent an internal e-mail to Apple employees this evening admitting mistakes in launching MobileMe.
"It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store," he says. "We all had more than enough to do, and MobileMe could have been delayed without consequence."
In particular, Jobs suggested that Apple should have launched the MobileMe services individually rather than in a single, complicated transition. Jobs also outlined a reorganization of management structure in which Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president for iTunes, will add oversight of the App Store and MobileMe to his duties and will report directly to Jobs.
"The MobileMe launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services," Jobs says. "And learn we will. The vision of MobileMe is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year."
MobileMe has been plagued by intermittent service at launch, exorbitant preauthorization charges for members signing up for the free trial, and an extended MobileMe e-mail outage affecting approximately 1% of customers that was not resolved until July 29th.
Update: Ars Technica has now published the full text of the e-mail.
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