Apple Silent on Latest Email Outage; Google Talks

08.12.08

Total posts: 1

by Mark Hachman

Both Google's Gmail and Apple's MobileMe email services failed Monday. One company was quiet about the outage, and another stepped forward and apologized.

Which company did what? Not surprisingly, Google issued a blog post detailing the problem, and apologized to users. Apple, however, left it to its customers to complain about the issue on its message boards.

Consider the differences:

"The issue was caused by a temporary outage in our contacts system that was preventing Gmail from loading properly," Todd Jackson, a Gmail product manager, wrote in a Monday night blog post. "Everything should be back to normal by the time you read this."

"Is it just me or would it be more in Apple's best interest to put actual DETAILS on the status page," user Dan Slocum posted to Apple's support forums. They have the red square up on the mail issue--- but what about some facts. What's the estimated time that service will be restored? Can they not even give a ROUGH TIMELINE? Am I the only one that gets angry with that attitude?"

Because of the lack of communication from Apple, it was impossible to determine whether or not the problem was widespread, or whether it affected just a small percentage of Apple's MobileMe users. Some complained of not being able to access email via the MobileMe service, but could access it via Web mail. One user reported that Apple had informed him that MobileMe mail was inaccessible from 1:16 to 1:43 PM PDT, but that service had been restored -- but not for him.

Apple previously claimed that just 1 percent of users were affected by the MobileMe email problems.

Apple added a MobileMe status blog in late July, promising frequent updates on any issues plaguing MobileMe. "Steve Jobs has asked me to write a posting every other day or so to let everyone know what's happening with MobileMe, and I'm working directly with the MobileMe group to ensure that we keep you really up to date," an unnamed Apple blogger wrote on July 25.

So far, however, the blogger, later identified as "Steven G.," has not issued any updates to the status blog describing the problem.

To date, Apple has not responded to requests for comment on MobileMe, although Apple representatives have assisted reporters on other topics, such as whether or not Mac users need antivirus programs on their system.

"In repsponse [sic] to those who tell us to stop whining about our MobileMe service constantly having problems, they are the ones who need to step back and take a breath," Mac user "Florida Max" wrote on the Apple support boards.

"Over the years Apple has taught us to expect products and services that are far superior to those that Windows users receive," Florida Max added. "Usually Apple comes through, but when they don't they had sure better expect us to speak up. The level of service we are receiving from Apple during their MobileMe growing pains is unacceptable. If I was able to reach tech support without a 156 minute wait to chat with a rep, maybe I wouldn't be so upset. But when I am paying $99 a year for services that I can get for free from many other sources, they had sure better be a lot more responsive and open about the problems than they are now."