MobileMe Refresh Expected Soon

Apple's cloud-based service MobileMe could be close to a redesign. Company watchers note the boxed version of the service sold through the Apple Store is no longer available, and AppleInsider sources report that the Apple SKUs (product codes) associated with the product have been marked "end of life" by the company.

Typically in the days before a refresh or discontinuation of a product, Apple will do what it has done here with MobileMe. Its hard to believe that the company would discontinue the product outright -- the "cloud" is the buzzword in tech right now -- although it could be in for some fairly significant changes.

Several news outlets -- most recently the Wall Street Journal -- have speculated that the service could become free, and serve as a locker for multimedia content. This would negate the need for a device to have a lot of onboard memory, and may have also led to the speculation of a cloud-based iPhone device (even though I've said I thought it was ridiculous at the moment).

Could it be that we're in for some type of MobileMe announcement on March 2 as well? Certainly looks like it but you never can be sure with Apple.

Let us also remember that streaming multimedia is nothing new: such talk has been through the Apple rumor mill for years. Harry covered the topic two years ago, and rumors have been swirling regarding cloud-based multimedia probably a year before that.

In other words we've certainly been down this path before. The only difference now could be that we're getting closer to having cellular data networks that can actually support a cloud-based multimedia service properly, I'd suppose.