Thursday, July 24,2008 @ 12:25am
Apple: MobileMe email down for 5 days, no ETA for fix
Apple has acknowledged the continuing MobileMe outages for some users and confirmed that the previously reported (and still ongoing) email outage is due to problems with its mail servers. Last week, a third wave of issues with MobileMe surfaced with Apple's email, sync, and web-based internet service offering. The scope, which Apple still claims is very limited, appeared to affect both US and international users, severely limiting users' access to email access via the Web and via email software. Users report that account access is intermittent at times, but for many the service has been completely out.
In a tech note posted to its support website, the company said it experienced a "serious" issues one of its MobileMe mail servers on Friday, July 18 and that the issue still remains unresolved, but that it was working diligently to restore service.
"This issue is currently affecting approximately 1% of MobileMe members. Affected members are unable to send or receive email at www.me.com or access email using any email client software such as Mail on a Mac or Microsoft Outlook on a PC...We understand this is a serious issue and apologize for this service interruption. We are working hard to restore your service."
Customers, however, continue to be surprised at the number of issues and severity of the current outage given the high-profile launch and marketing of the service (including recently launched rebates). In addition to the launch issues -- persisting beyond the initial few days -- and scheduled maintenance that affected mail, the continuing issues have left some wondering whether Apple has the expertise to provide such a service.
"I can't believe that Apple can't either fix the problem or get someone to fix it. It's been more than 4 days and certainly I won't be relying on them to deliver any type of mission critical email," one user wrote in an email to MacNN. "Four days is a long time and this second round of issues is completely ridiculous. Apple is a hardware and software company, not an internet company. Why don't they just outsource some of this to others who are better?"
Last week, Apple acknowledged problems with the MobileMe launch with an apology and and free a 30-day extension to all users as a result of the launch issues and the continuing frustrations with access.
The company even pulled back on its "push" email marketing and "Exchange for the rest of us" marketing, as many claimed the service was not delivering the features promised by Apple.