After warning and alerting users for nearly a year, Apple has finally pulled the plug on MobileMe, the company’s online service introduced alongside the iPhone OS 2.0 upgrade in 2008.
MobileMe companion apps Gallery and iDisk have also been pulled from the App Store.
Although the service is closed down, Apple continues to offer users the option of migrating to iCloud, the cloud-based service that Apple introduced last year.
Since there are a number of components in MobileMe like iWeb and iDisk that are no longer a part of iCloud, users have no choice but to download the data from these services onto their local machines.
Since iCloud is compatible only with Macs running OS X Lion or higher, users on previous versions of OS X are out of luck unless they decide to upgrade. Apple is also reportedly giving away free Snow Leopard discs to users on older versions of OS X to help them upgrade to Lion, only available via the Mac App Store which requires OS X 10.6.
Here’s a description of the migration process from MobileMe to iCloud, which Apple made available right since day one of iCloud’s launch.
Apple will soon close the data migration service as well, so if you’re one of the few who has yet to migrate to iCloud, head over to me.com. (While you’re there, be sure to notice the delightful animation when you open the page.)
