Apple has officially closed the door on its MobileMe cloud service today. The move comes after a several month-long transition period that allowed users to move their accounts to iCloud and download their remaining files.
As of this morning, the MobileMe site no longer offers users the option to transfer their accounts over to iCloud, or download their remaining data. Instead, MobileMe visitors are redirected to the existing iCloud website…
The shuttering of MobileMe marks the end of an embarrassing era for Apple, as the service was largely seen as a failure in the eyes of both consumers and Apple employees — including Steve Jobs.
Fittingly, here’s an excerpt from Adam Lashinsky’s book Inside Apple on Jobs’ well-known eruption after MobileMe received a bad review from The Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg:
“In 2008, when Mossberg, along with many other critics, panned MobileMe, an email synchronization service that was supposed to mimc the functionality offered by the popular BlackBerry smartphone, Jobs erupted.
He called a meeting of the MobileMe team and berated them for having disappointed him, themselves, and one another. Worst of all, they had embarrassed Apple publicly. “You’ve tarnished Apple’s reputation,” he told them. “You should hate each other for having let each other down. Walt Mossberg, our friend, is no longer writing good things about us.”
Today also marked the end of another era, iWork.com is officially closed for business. Any attempts to visit the site will get you redirected to Apple’s home page. And it does not look like users will be able to retrieve any further data.