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Should Apple make .Mac free?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the web-full-please-leave dept.

Moby Cock writes "The recent display of iLife '06 at Macworld showed that the suite has a very fine integration with .Mac, Apple's subscription-based web portal. In a recent post to his blog on ZDNet, Dan Farber argues that a .Mac subscription ought to be included with the purchase of an Apple computer. There is no doubt that web portals are huge revenue engines, could Apple be missing an opportunity here?"

2 of 297 comments (clear)

  1. Umm.. No? by TubeSteak · · Score: 5, Insightful

    .Mac comes with webhosting and a variety of other costs.

    If they gave that to everyone who owns a Mac, they'd have significantly higher costs.

    Just the webhosting alone would put a dent in their profits.

    --
    [Fuck Beta]
    o0t!
  2. Why not? How about why? by th1ckasabr1ck · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The article states that there are a million subscribers at $99 each. That's $100 million that Apple makes from .mac - I really have no idea how much money similar ad-based services make, but I would be surprised if more than a few pulled in that much cash.

    Apple is a corporation and they want to make money. I think the real question is: "Why WOULD they set .mac free?"