Sorry, But I See a Perfectly Good Apple

Joe Wilcox | July 03, 2003, 04:33 PM

Duh, of course Apple wants .Mac customers to renew their subscriptions. I was surprised to see this non-news story on CNET News.com yesterday.

Last July, Apple surprised lots of Mac users by converting their then-free iTools accounts to for-fee .Mac subscriptions. The move sparked an unusual outcry against Apple from the typically ultra-supportive Mac community. But Apple weathered the storm just fine, capturing about 250,000 paying subscribers; some converted from iTools for $49, while others signed up for new accounts at the regular $99 price.

Crunch time on renewals is coming, with CNET News.com warning Apple could have a hard time converting $49 .Mac accounts to $99. I don't agree. Apple offers lots of value through .Mac, and that will get better when Mac OS X 10.2-successor Panther ships later this year. Panther offers nifty integration between the OS and .Mac iDisk online storage.

Still, it wouldn’t hurt for Apple to show a little love to Mac users that showed their faith in .Mac by paying up for the service. Freebies are always good. One idea, offer iTunes songs for 79 cents a piece for a limited period of time or number of tracks to people that renew. Or maybe offer them a free copy of iLife. Hey, that’s a $49 value right there. Or nix their $29 fee for iChat AV, when the product ships for real (It’s testing right now).

The freebies wouldn’t hurt Apple’s bottom line, but would go a long way in terms of goodwill. Of course, there is a downside: You’ve got to plan on that pesky news story claiming Apple is so desperate for renewals the company is forced to do giveaways.