Decision 2008: Google Apps vs. Apple’s MobileMe

By Daniel Miessler on June 11th, 2008: Tagged as Apple | Google

Mobile_Me_Logo

Apple complicated things yesterday when they released MobileMe. I’m a huge fan of Google services and use Google Apps to host my domain’s email. Plus I use Google Reader, Google Calendar, and a number of other applications of theirs.

Until Apple’s announcement I was looking for more integration between iCal and Google Calendar with the new 2.0 software. Now I’m not sure what to think.

My first thought is to forward all my email from Google to my MobileMe account, and then point my iPhone and Mail.app clients to MobileMe. Basically, I’d be standardizing on MobileMe for my mobile device world.

The problem is that I don’t see Apple keeping up with Google when it comes to web services. I just don’t. I think they’ll catch up once in a while, like they just did, but Google’s constant improvement is just overwhelmingly compelling.

So, what are you iPhone/Google users out there going to do? Are you going to move to MobileMe or stick with Google’s services for Calendar, Mail, Photo sharing, etc?

[ One thing we need to consider is the fact that Google is likely to launch all of their tools for the iPhone in native format. I would not be surprised to see them introduce push email, contacts and calendar as well. The question would just be whether or not they could do it as cleanly as Apple. ]

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  • http://www.davidbrewster.com/ David

    For me it’s about usability and as much as I would love to use MobileMe for the total Mac experience, I find that Gmail and GCal are just quicker to use than either the desktop or online Mac versions. Not as nice to look at, but quicker.

    So far I’ve been using Spanning Sync and Gmail IMAP with iCal/GCal and Mac Mail/Gmail respectively and think I’ll keep doing that.

    Also sharing calendars is, so far, easier on GCal.

    Love .Mac/Me Gallery but not sure it’s worth the money on its own. Similarly, I’m using a Mozy account for free disk space equivalent to iDisk.

    Don’t have an iPhone yet – maybe things will change when I do.

    Hard decisions!

  • http://www.davidbrewster.com/ David

    For me it’s about usability and as much as I would love to use MobileMe for the total Mac experience, I find that Gmail and GCal are just quicker to use than either the desktop or online Mac versions. Not as nice to look at, but quicker.

    So far I’ve been using Spanning Sync and Gmail IMAP with iCal/GCal and Mac Mail/Gmail respectively and think I’ll keep doing that.

    Also sharing calendars is, so far, easier on GCal.

    Love .Mac/Me Gallery but not sure it’s worth the money on its own. Similarly, I’m using a Mozy account for free disk space equivalent to iDisk.

    Don’t have an iPhone yet – maybe things will change when I do.

    Hard decisions!

  • http://www.davidbrewster.com David

    For me it’s about usability and as much as I would love to use MobileMe for the total Mac experience, I find that Gmail and GCal are just quicker to use than either the desktop or online Mac versions. Not as nice to look at, but quicker.

    So far I’ve been using Spanning Sync and Gmail IMAP with iCal/GCal and Mac Mail/Gmail respectively and think I’ll keep doing that.

    Also sharing calendars is, so far, easier on GCal.

    Love .Mac/Me Gallery but not sure it’s worth the money on its own. Similarly, I’m using a Mozy account for free disk space equivalent to iDisk.

    Don’t have an iPhone yet – maybe things will change when I do.

    Hard decisions!

  • Shawn

    I have some issues with Google when it comes to them owning any content that you publish on their free services (blogs, photos, calendar events, etc.) I may be wrong here, but I read through the licensing aggreement and they basically can take whatever you put on their services and use it whenever and how ever they like because you implicitly give them permission to when you use them.

    At least with MobileMe, what’s yours is yours. (i think)

    That being said, I leverage google for email and calendar, and although I have used many of their free products, I only use these two 99% of the time.

    The holy grail of syncing for me would be to sync my gmail, gcal, with my MobileMe and ical, and then sync all of this with my work exchange server. Then I wouldn’t need to carry a Blackberry and my iPhone. I get my new one in a few days, we’ll see what happens.

  • Shawn

    I have some issues with Google when it comes to them owning any content that you publish on their free services (blogs, photos, calendar events, etc.) I may be wrong here, but I read through the licensing aggreement and they basically can take whatever you put on their services and use it whenever and how ever they like because you implicitly give them permission to when you use them.

    At least with MobileMe, what’s yours is yours. (i think)

    That being said, I leverage google for email and calendar, and although I have used many of their free products, I only use these two 99% of the time.

    The holy grail of syncing for me would be to sync my gmail, gcal, with my MobileMe and ical, and then sync all of this with my work exchange server. Then I wouldn’t need to carry a Blackberry and my iPhone. I get my new one in a few days, we’ll see what happens.

  • Shawn

    I have some issues with Google when it comes to them owning any content that you publish on their free services (blogs, photos, calendar events, etc.) I may be wrong here, but I read through the licensing aggreement and they basically can take whatever you put on their services and use it whenever and how ever they like because you implicitly give them permission to when you use them.

    At least with MobileMe, what’s yours is yours. (i think)

    That being said, I leverage google for email and calendar, and although I have used many of their free products, I only use these two 99% of the time.

    The holy grail of syncing for me would be to sync my gmail, gcal, with my MobileMe and ical, and then sync all of this with my work exchange server. Then I wouldn’t need to carry a Blackberry and my iPhone. I get my new one in a few days, we’ll see what happens.

  • Eric

    I share your pain…

    I agree MobileMe will never be as good as the web-based parts of Google, and we both probably agree Google will never be as good as Apple’s mobile-based products.

    I’m trying the free trial of MobileMe, but don’t anticipate keeping it. I haven’t found myself really needing it thus far. I’ve tinkered with my address book here and there, but I almost don’t mind just doing all that on my iPhone. The file storage is nice, but I use other products like Box.net and not very often.

    Everyone’s needs are different, but like you, I feel stuck in the middle right now.

    By the way – Gmail just updated their Address Book, taking a step towards solving address book mangement – and hopefully making the sync tools better in the future.

    Great Post.

  • Eric

    I share your pain…

    I agree MobileMe will never be as good as the web-based parts of Google, and we both probably agree Google will never be as good as Apple’s mobile-based products.

    I’m trying the free trial of MobileMe, but don’t anticipate keeping it. I haven’t found myself really needing it thus far. I’ve tinkered with my address book here and there, but I almost don’t mind just doing all that on my iPhone. The file storage is nice, but I use other products like Box.net and not very often.

    Everyone’s needs are different, but like you, I feel stuck in the middle right now.

    By the way – Gmail just updated their Address Book, taking a step towards solving address book mangement – and hopefully making the sync tools better in the future.

    Great Post.

  • Eric

    I share your pain…

    I agree MobileMe will never be as good as the web-based parts of Google, and we both probably agree Google will never be as good as Apple’s mobile-based products.

    I’m trying the free trial of MobileMe, but don’t anticipate keeping it. I haven’t found myself really needing it thus far. I’ve tinkered with my address book here and there, but I almost don’t mind just doing all that on my iPhone. The file storage is nice, but I use other products like Box.net and not very often.

    Everyone’s needs are different, but like you, I feel stuck in the middle right now.

    By the way – Gmail just updated their Address Book, taking a step towards solving address book mangement – and hopefully making the sync tools better in the future.

    Great Post.

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  • impaler

    Well, it’s agonizing. I have bought into the Apple ecosystem at home: Apple TV, iMac, MacBook, iPhone, iPod, Airport network with two Airport Expresses for music all over my house. The idea of integrating even further with MobileMe (especially for the iPhone) is very very compelling. But I go back and forth all the time. Gmail is reliable, works, and I don’t have the nervous moments, wondering if an e-mail was actually sent–did it go? Did my calendar sync properly? But using Windows XP/Outlook 2007 at work, the appointments just show up very well with MM sync…so I think I’m going to hang onto MobileMe. I hope Apple just continues to really put resources together to keep improving this service. Although $99 (that’s only $8.34 a month), I get the full sync experience and push mail is pretty reliable at this point. Gmail is great–but MobileMe offers the true integration.

  • impaler

    Well, it’s agonizing. I have bought into the Apple ecosystem at home: Apple TV, iMac, MacBook, iPhone, iPod, Airport network with two Airport Expresses for music all over my house. The idea of integrating even further with MobileMe (especially for the iPhone) is very very compelling. But I go back and forth all the time. Gmail is reliable, works, and I don’t have the nervous moments, wondering if an e-mail was actually sent–did it go? Did my calendar sync properly? But using Windows XP/Outlook 2007 at work, the appointments just show up very well with MM sync…so I think I’m going to hang onto MobileMe. I hope Apple just continues to really put resources together to keep improving this service. Although $99 (that’s only $8.34 a month), I get the full sync experience and push mail is pretty reliable at this point. Gmail is great–but MobileMe offers the true integration.

  • impaler

    Well, it’s agonizing. I have bought into the Apple ecosystem at home: Apple TV, iMac, MacBook, iPhone, iPod, Airport network with two Airport Expresses for music all over my house. The idea of integrating even further with MobileMe (especially for the iPhone) is very very compelling. But I go back and forth all the time. Gmail is reliable, works, and I don’t have the nervous moments, wondering if an e-mail was actually sent–did it go? Did my calendar sync properly? But using Windows XP/Outlook 2007 at work, the appointments just show up very well with MM sync…so I think I’m going to hang onto MobileMe. I hope Apple just continues to really put resources together to keep improving this service. Although $99 (that’s only $8.34 a month), I get the full sync experience and push mail is pretty reliable at this point. Gmail is great–but MobileMe offers the true integration.

  • http://islandinthenet.com/ Khürt

    @impaler: My setup is similar to your ( sans the Apple TV but I WANT ONE ). I have a Mac mini, MacBook, Time Capsule, AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme ( the TC and AirPorts are in WDS mode so my home is saturated with wireless ), and iPod Touch. I have MobileMe but … I am wondering what the value add is. Now that Google Calendar has CalDAV support for iCal, keeping my calendars in sync and sharing is trivial. I have a Google Apps domain so I can create up to 11 accounts, share documents, calendars, and address book information. With Plaxo (free) I keep my AddressBook synced across all machines ( and platforms ) and I can read my email in Mail.app now that GMail has IMAP support. The only challenge is updating my calendar and address book on my iPod Touch.

  • http://islandinthenet.com/ Khürt

    @impaler: My setup is similar to your ( sans the Apple TV but I WANT ONE ). I have a Mac mini, MacBook, Time Capsule, AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme ( the TC and AirPorts are in WDS mode so my home is saturated with wireless ), and iPod Touch. I have MobileMe but … I am wondering what the value add is. Now that Google Calendar has CalDAV support for iCal, keeping my calendars in sync and sharing is trivial. I have a Google Apps domain so I can create up to 11 accounts, share documents, calendars, and address book information. With Plaxo (free) I keep my AddressBook synced across all machines ( and platforms ) and I can read my email in Mail.app now that GMail has IMAP support. The only challenge is updating my calendar and address book on my iPod Touch.

  • http://islandinthenet.com/ Khürt Williams

    @impaler: My setup is similar to your ( sans the Apple TV but I WANT ONE ). I have a Mac mini, MacBook, Time Capsule, AirPort Express, AirPort Extreme ( the TC and AirPorts are in WDS mode so my home is saturated with wireless ), and iPod Touch. I have MobileMe but … I am wondering what the value add is. Now that Google Calendar has CalDAV support for iCal, keeping my calendars in sync and sharing is trivial. I have a Google Apps domain so I can create up to 11 accounts, share documents, calendars, and address book information. With Plaxo (free) I keep my AddressBook synced across all machines ( and platforms ) and I can read my email in Mail.app now that GMail has IMAP support. The only challenge is updating my calendar and address book on my iPod Touch.

  • http://www.dennissiller.com/ Dennis Siller

    This is a very interesting post because your theory is coming true. I've been on MobileMe for over a year now and am thinking about switching to Gmail.

    My only concern is that there might be little things that don't work as well with Google Apps vs. having MobileMe.

    Since I use an iPhone and a Mac, MobileMe works great. Do you think Gmail performs the same way?

  • http://www.dozeniphone.com iphone index

    There is no doubt in my mind that the apps on iphone are far superior to the apps on Android. The problem with Android's apps are they are limited and don't seem as user friendly, I know Google wants to improve or capitalize on Android's apps database, but I think it will never compete with Apple. Just look at the amount of apps listed on iphone index sites like http://www.dozeniphone.com and you will see what I mean. The iPhone has an app for everything, Android has an app for some things. That's the difference.

  • http://www.dozeniphone.com iphone index

    There is no doubt in my mind that the apps on iphone are far superior to the apps on Android. The problem with Android's apps are they are limited and don't seem as user friendly, I know Google wants to improve or capitalize on Android's apps database, but I think it will never compete with Apple. Just look at the amount of apps listed on iphone index sites like http://www.dozeniphone.com and you will see what I mean. The iPhone has an app for everything, Android has an app for some things. That's the difference.

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