New Google Powered .Mac or will it be Yahoo?


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Apple has been on fire in so many arenas recently that its hard to believe that anything related to Apple is struggling, but struggle .mac has.  With subscriptions in steep decline Apple is planning on partnering with its ally Google to “Google Power” their web applications and maybe get a renewed boost. The new iPhone being released in a couple of days, featuring browser based applications Apple has a great opportunity to upsell iPhone customers into the new and improved .mac.  While Google stands to share in .mac subscription fees, marketshare, and branding, Apple just has too many balls in the air lately. Merging their .Mac development with Google will allow them to focus on other key products while maintaining brand control. 

The new .mac services will be paid branded services combining Apple’s user interface with Google’s bandwidth and back end.  .Mac’s email will be a reskinned Gmail with 10 Gigs of space, some of the user functionality of the new .Mac interface will make the jump with the new “Google Powered” version so that most users will barely notice a UI change. Apple will also get a version of Google Calendar which syncs directly to iCal “with the touch of a button”.  Some development is already underway between an Apple team and a Google team to find a way to integrate the user accounts of .Mac customers and Google Accounts. 

Our sources tell us that a integration of the two services has been in the works for quite some time and that Google already has most of the work done and had just been waiting for Apple to jump on board.  Reportedly the web applications being “Google Powered” were shown in a very early iteration to Steve Jobs himself and were given a thumbs up.  Some “whiteboard” ideas offer a way to integrate iTunes Store music in a web client for .mac customers that wish to take their music with them on the go. While we are not privy to whether iTunes Store mobile made the cut, we can see how this will benefit the new iPhone immensely, inability to wirelessly downloading music has been one of the reasons competitors are claiming that the iPhone is not a good as their product. 

Some of the collaboration between Apple and Google has brought back up talks that Google’s search engine could be set automatically highlight iTunes artists searched for by Google with purchases occurring through iTunes Store.  The major sticking point for Apple is that they do not want to rely on Google Checkout APIs for the iTunes Store, a current requirement for the deal.  Our assessment is that Paypal will not be pushed out and eventually Google will play ball with Apple in this regard, one never knows though.  We plan on writing more on the .mac web applications as soon as we can get some clarity on what else may evolve from the Google and Apple partnership.

Update:  As this story was being written Apple was also meeting with representatives from Yahoo in regard to .Mac, we have to wonder if something fell through with Google or if they are just weighing their options.  We will be sure to report back to you if .mac turns a different direction.  One observation recently sited the screen shot of Safari for Windows with a Yahoo page on the front.  While Steve Jobs has been known to change his mind midstream many people see the Google partnership as the most optimal solution.

Read more posts by Christopher Carey

June 27, 2007 | Filed Under General 

Comments

One Response to “New Google Powered .Mac or will it be Yahoo?”

  1. Medical Lasers on MyAvatars 0.2 March 20th, 2008 7:37 am

    Any more updates to this? I didn’t even know this was out there. It’s hard to imagine .mac going with anyone but G.

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