.Mac still value for money?
My wife’s .Mac subscription is due in a month.
Despite rave reviews like this recent one 
in the Times Record (“The best $8.25 you’ll spend this month”), I wonder if .Mac is still good value for money.
For less than half the price, USD 40, I can get a 2GB IMAP account and 1GB of WebDAV file space at Fastmail. Other providers no doubt provide deals that are just as good.
A number of apps provide synching abilities for iCal and Address Book (you can find some in the iCal and Address Book sections of the Hawk Wings plug-in and add-on list).
iWeb, Groups and other features are things my wife and I never use.
The only reason I can see for renewing her subscription is to show support for a great company.
Perhaps “value for money” is not the right way to think about it. It’s about belonging. It’s a tribal thing, not a financial decision.
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Tags: Address Book, dotmac, iCal, iDisk, isync, mac, value for money
April 24th, 2006 at 11:19 pm
I agree that .Mac’s value has decreased in recent months. Dropping Virex (or, more accurately, deciding that Virex was not a good partner app) was a big blow from my perspective, and I think they would do well to work out a similar partnership with Norton.
I had high hopes that they would drop the price of .Mac after announcing iWeb and photocasting, since the pricepoint of .Mac makes it harder to justify digging deeply into these offerings (although iWeb can be used for other hosts). This is especially true when you learn that only .Mac users can view photocasts– which means you’ve got to coax your family and friends to join as well…
Still, I think it has value in this: iDisk and Backup provide a seamless and easy-to-use setup for regular systemic backups. That alone is worth a good bit, maybe even $99 a year; add to it the ease of syncing iCal and Address Book and it’s a fair exchange of dollars for service. Probably not a bargain, but not too overpriced either.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:18 am
Every year I ask myself the same question, and every year I have renewed. But this year may be different.
These are the services I use from .Mac and what I could or am in the process of replacing with:
- web address book synching –> could use Plaxo (new)
- iPhoto to web export –> Flickr and Flickr plugin for iPhoto
- iDisk –> nothing yet… but I have lots of space in my webhosting account.
- Backup –> nothing yet…
I can’t think of any other .Mac services that I really need. For me the Addressbook synchronization was worth the price alone, but Plaxo seems to be decent, if not a perfect replacement.
April 25th, 2006 at 2:04 am
I guess my thinking is simple on this one and the be all end all that keeps me on a Mac as opposed to a PC. Cost of simplicity and stability -vs- my hourly value. If I look at my hourly value of my personal time, I value it higher than $10 an hour but for argements sake, lets just work with this number. How much money am I really saving using some of these other programs? In the time I spend in working in the simplicity of any ONE of the Mac/.mac programs it is worth the cost alone. Maybe some of you have gotten spoiled but I’d say go and use some of those other programs again regularly. The integration of the Apple applications is the genius that keeps me here with Mac/.mac. I know for me, overall, I look at a bigger picture and my time is worth much more than the $8.25 a month I am saving. Think about it seriously, what is your personal time hourly value, then re-think the value. That is less than one trip to Starbucks for two lattes. :)
April 25th, 2006 at 2:07 am
I still believe .Mac is incredibly good value. As you point out, there are alternatives for some of the services. But the seamless integration of .Mac services (it’s a System Preference panel now, don’t forget) means that since it’s an automatically installed part of the entire OS, it makes setting up of new machines, or more importantly clean installing existing ones, utterly painless. One minute after you’ve finished an install, that machine will have a full complement of Safari boookmarks, a complete address book, and a full set of email accounts already established. That, combined with the simple daily security provided by Backup to your iDisk, makes it seem remarkable value to me at $99/year.
April 25th, 2006 at 3:15 am
Personally, I enjoyed my time at Fastmail but I think I will be giving Tuffmail a try soon, once I come up with a domain name I want to use for my future email.
April 25th, 2006 at 3:49 am
You’ve got to be kidding, right? Apple just announced profits of $410m. I don’t think they need my $99 to stay in business, and what you get just isn’t worth it. Personally, I think the best thing about it is the syncing, but other solutions seem much more cost effective (my sync, newsgator, etc.)
April 25th, 2006 at 4:50 am
You can always renew through Amazon and save > $20….
The value of synchronization and iLife integration is definitely worth $75 a year…
April 25th, 2006 at 5:59 am
The syncing is nice — I can make my own jabber server, imap server, webdav server (for ical), but address book syncing is still a hang up.
However, if you don’t need syncing, you’re wasting your money — for $100 bucks a year or less you can have 20gb of space at dreamhost or a similar service.
The arguement is those services are for intermediate to advanced user — the average home user would benefit largely from the simplicity of .ma.
April 25th, 2006 at 8:58 am
For those who are not on .Mac, you don’t know what you’re talking about. Yes, there are portions of the services that others offer for free but there’s other stuff that you cannot readily duplicate … syncing is on the top of the list and especially the “virtual” hard drive it creates on your desktop. You just drag files and out of including and/or a sync folder. You can assign passwords and folders in a snap – again, if you’re an advanced user, yes, you can replicate everything over a dozen websites and with lots of apps or you can access your safari bookmarks or address book anywhere in the world you have internet access – not bad – certainly worth two cups of coffee a month … and i know the company is not going away like some ISP’s or hosts tend to do.
And for most users, there is NO easier way to get a website or photos online.
BTW, you should scout around – amazon often sells .mac for less than $99 and I think some mac clearance places sell .mac for around $75 (the most I’ve paid) like megamacs?
You get a retail box with a number. just type that in the renewal and you’re set.
April 25th, 2006 at 9:25 am
I would still prefer http://del.icio.us/ or magnolia for bookmarking vs syncing safari — just as a recommendation. Best not to lock yourself into a browser or platform depending on your mobility.
April 25th, 2006 at 9:52 am
Jeff, I don’t want to turn into the complete Fastmail evangelist, but you can can host your domain with Fastmail.
April 25th, 2006 at 12:27 pm
I do have .mac. I really, really want to continue to subscribe, but it’s becoming hard and harder to justify it.
Pricewise, the only thing that can save it from seeming like a ripoff is the integration and ease of use. But even that is being put to the test. Sure, you use to have to be an advanced user to duplicate .mac. But it’s simply not that hard any more.
Ical will eventually integrate with gcal. I already use gmail and mail.app to check it. Bookmarks? I’d rather use delicious or magnolia.
It really is sad, because .mac has so much potential. But I’m afraid it’s doomed, and with better web apps coming out monthly, it’s only going to get worse. And it’s those of us that put our heads in the sand and sign up year after year that are partly to blame.
April 25th, 2006 at 3:24 pm
I’m curious why Jeff intends to leave FastMail for Tuffmail, if there’s a brief answer that’s not too much of a thread-sabotage.
I dropped my .Mac subscription about 18 months ago. And my FM Enhanced account awhile before that. Hard to justify paying for mail/web services I’m able to get for free (for now) or wasn’t using.
I don’t think .Mac is such a bad deal (especially for a discounted price) if it offers convenience for services that would be a hassle elsewhere. Heck, I wonder how many people really get +$40/mo. value from their cell phone service and never complain about it, yet whine about paying a lot less for something they will get a “fair” amount of use from.
April 25th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Marco and others mention free replacements in lieu of .Mac. But fail to mention these free services actually cost if you try to compare them to .Mac, or they simply don’t deliver the same features.
For example, Plaxo can’t sync to a mobile phone for free, and it can’t sync to your iPod. iCal and Address Book do all of these things for free. Plaxo costs $50 to sync your address book to a mobile. It’s not clear whether it will sync your iCal data to a mobile.
And a free Flickr account has a 20MB upload limit per mth, only stores 3 sets and resizes your ‘large’ images to suit itself. To get around these limits you need to spend $30.
There’s $80 spent on Plaxo and Flickr just to match some of .Mac’s features. And that’s without mentioning that .Mac is integrated so you don’t need to muck around with different user ids, passwords, urls, extra software that can cause hassles, multiple bills, etc.
And yes, buying your own domain name and getting a Dreamhost account for 12 mths costs about $120 a year and you still have to muck around and set it up to match .Mac’s services. Why bother?
I think I’ve just talked myself into .Mac!
April 25th, 2006 at 9:08 pm
Tim,
I know that Fastmail can do that. In fact, I used to host my own domain name there for some time ago before I started using Gmail.
Basically, I just want to give Tuffmail a go to see how it is. But I need to come up with a domain first and that can be pretty tough nowadays.
April 25th, 2006 at 9:51 pm
Ahh, I see. I’d love to know what Tuffmail is like if you do try out it out. I know nothing about it.
April 25th, 2006 at 11:38 pm
The only reason I know about Tuffmail is because of an email discussions forum that I found via Fastmail. They discuss Fastmail, Gmail, and other email related things. Since you are a Fastmail user, you might know about it already but if not, the URI is:
http://www.emailaddresses.com/forum/
I believe that Nancy McGough of Infinite Ink (ii.com) now uses Tuffmail. Her website is what really turned me on to IMAP mail servers, not to mention that she is a dedicated Pine user.
By the way, her website has a large table of email providers and the services that they provide, usually including cost. You can access it at:
http://www.ii.com/internet/messaging/imap/isps/
April 26th, 2006 at 12:05 am
“I think I’ve just talked myself into .Mac!”
For 24 bucks flicker is unlimited. Someone who takes a lot of pictures couldn’t use .mac because there isn’t enough room.
As far as dreamhost, you can find much better deals than 120 a year, but even at that price, they give you a ton more space than .mac.
Really, you need to educate yourself before showing your ignorance.
April 26th, 2006 at 1:13 am
“And yes, buying your own domain name and getting a Dreamhost account for 12 mths costs about $120 a year and you still have to muck around and set it up to match .Mac’s services. Why bother?”
Cause no one I know at Dreamhost pays 120 bucks a year, I paid 40 and have 20gb of space for a client — and muck around yes, but as we noted, it’s for professionals. If you’re on this blog and arguing that much about it, I’m sure you’re more technically enclined than the most and would prefer to tinker with your own setup. Again, you get your own jabber and can setup ical hosting — for address book, you’re out of luck unless you start coding microformats like we’ve just jumped into.
I think we’ve all validated it:) .Mac is great for the basic level consumer — but most of us outgrow it, and .Mac has nothing for us. I’m surprised, they’ve cornered the price market on iPods, why not make a scale based on services for the .Mac market?
I’ve got to say, if iWeb had produced valid, standard accessible code right out of the box (it doesn’t) with a mind for semantics, I would probably pitch it more. It’s impressive, but it falls short — and without that, I see a huge gap for consumer level benefit regarding .Mac.
April 26th, 2006 at 5:18 am
Brady,
You write:
.Mac is great for the basic level consumer — but most of us outgrow it, and .Mac has nothing for us.
I disagree. The no nonsense syncing, on a system level, between my work machine, two home machines, cell phone, and iPod is something that I cannot do with any sort of ease or simplicity.
I’ve got to say, if iWeb had produced valid, standard accessible code right out of the box (it doesn’t) with a mind for semantics, I would probably pitch it more. It’s impressive, but it falls short — and without that, I see a huge gap for consumer level benefit regarding .Mac.
I agree iWeb 1.0 is still somewhat of a toy. But it is a 1.0 release.
April 26th, 2006 at 7:54 am
Lots of useful info there, but her site is still begging for the unwieldy-sized monolithic pages to be broken up into smaller ones that are easier to browse/navigate.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:01 am
Really, was it necessary to punctuate your post with that offending remark? Sigh.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:06 am
Can you reveal where others can get that $3.33/mo. DreamHost account? I don’t see anything less than $7.95/mo. for managed web hosting with a two-year pre-payment.
April 26th, 2006 at 8:14 am
“Can you reveal where others can get that $3.33/mo. DreamHost account? I don’t see anything less than $7.95/mo. for managed web hosting with a two-year pre-payment.”
It goes by referrers — in this case, if you use my referrer on sign up:
dotfive
You’ll get $97 off of one year, $50 off the monthly plan selection and then it’s $60 off the monthly plan for two years, etc.
Everyone who is a customer can make a referrer code and pass it along. I get 5 bucks or something, you get up to $97 bucks off.
September 27th, 2006 at 10:46 am
[...] Will it be enough to silence .Mac’s many, many, many, many critics or even moderate their complaints? Only time will tell. [...]