Apple’s Mobile Me Might Finally Be Going Free

Apple’s Mobile Me online suite might finally be going free, with some existing members noticing that Apple is now referring to them as “full members.”

Mobile Me offers a range of tools, including email, online storage, and sync services to Mac users. The package currently costs $99 for an individual or $149 for a family.

According to 9-5 Mac, the change to “full member status” has been going on for sometime, and would indicate the possible introduction of a free version. Given most of the tools offered by Mobile Me can be found elsewhere online for free, it’s a reasonable guess to make.

Others argue that Apple can’t compete with Google while charging for things like email, but it’s an argument with possibly flawed logic: does Apple really want to compete with Google in areas like email to begin with?

As a Mobile Me customer, there are two things I primarily use the service for: syncing between computers and online backup of that data (calendar, passwords etc) and the one unique tool it does offer: the ability to find my iPhone when I can’t remember where I left it. The email isn’t all that great, and with the exception of occasionally using the iPhone tool I never log into the Mobile Me site to use it. A quick straw poll of friends on the service indicated similar use reasons.

Still, if it does go free that’s on less annual bill I have to pay for, so I’m all for it