MobileMe Shuts Down

As initially announced last year with the launch of iCloud, Apple has officially shut down MobileMe – its former cloud-based platform for data syncing and document storage – yesterday, June 30, 2012. Replacing the standard Me.com login page with a shutdown notice for all users, Apple notes that “for a limited time, you can still move your MobileMe account to iCloud and download your Gallery photos and iDisk files at me.com”. The MobileMe login page is still providing links to find a lost device through Find My iPhone, download Gallery and iDisk data, and transition to iCloud. A Transition Q&A page is available here.

As also previously announced, old MobileMe subscribers with 20 GB of storage have received a free upgrade to iCloud until September 30, 2012:

MobileMe members with 20GB of storage receive a complimentary iCloud storage upgrade of 20GB, and accounts with additional purchased storage (40GB to 60GB) receive a complimentary upgrade of 50GB after moving to iCloud. These free upgrades are good through September 30, 2012. After that date, you can continue the upgrade at the regular price or let it expire and use the free 5GB plan.

Wikipedia provides a good summarization of MobileMe’s evolution and changes through the years, leading up to last year’s launch of iCloud, which Apple deemed the platform “for the next decade”.