Apple Posts MobileMe Update, Will Live On Until June 30 2012

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Call me one of the stubborn ones, but for some reason I have kept my MobileMe account active over the years despite having switched over to comparable services from other companies for most of the services. And by other companies I really mean Google, but that aside, I think for the most part I simply did not want to lose my .me (.mac) email address, which I use as a reliable backup account.

That being said, Apple took to the stage yesterday and killed off the service with the introduction of the iCloud, which as fellow TFTS blogger Chris mentioned yesterday — is coming this fall and will be available for free. Needless to say, I am rather happy I can now save my $99 per year. And with that, it looks like Apple has begun the notification process for current MobileMe subscribers.

I have received an email, however the same information has been posted in an Apple support document, which you will be shown if you had tried to visit the www.apple.com/mobileme website.

Anyway, in short, it looks like the MobileMe service will live on for a little over a year from now. The official end of life date is June 30, 2012. That being said, Apple noted that they will transition current MobileMe users and specific details on how to switch over will be available “this fall.” The good news with that, you will be able to take your current email address as well as your contacts, calendar and bookmarks.

In addition, Apple has closed off MobileMe and is no longer allowing new users to sign up for either a free or paid account. In other words, if you do not currently have a MobileMe email address then you are going to be out of luck until the fall. The one catch with new accounts, those on a family pack will still be able to create new family member accounts.

And lastly, if you happen to have a boxed version of MobileMe that is unused, you can return that for a full refund by submitting a request to Apple, of which you can find the directions on how to do that here.