Apple Gives MobileMe Users 60 More Days, Pleads for Patience

The company previously extended memberships 30 days, which means qualifying subscriber renewal dates have been extended 90 days.

The MobileMe team sent current subscribers an e-mail on Monday that stated, in part: "We are working very hard to make MobileMe a great service we can all be proud of. We know that MobileMe's launch has not been our finest hour, and we truly appreciate your patience as we turn this around."

E-Mail Meltdown

Subscribers aren't required to take any action to get their free extension because Apple is automatically adding the extra time to all current MobileMe accounts that were active as of midnight Pacific time on Aug. 19.

Users who already received the 30-day extension will see an additional 60 days added to their account some time in the next few days.

MobileMe has been plagued with issues since its launch on July 11 when it replaced .Mac. Users have complained about problems connecting to the service, accessing their data, synchronizing information with their computers and iPhones, and missing e-mail messages.

Some users were left without e-mail access for over a week, and recently all users were without e-mail access for several hours.

Blemish on Apple

CEO Steve Jobs even went so far as to say, "It was a mistake to launch MobileMe at the same time as iPhone 3G , iPhone 2.0 software and the App Store," and added "The launch of MobileMe was not our finest hour."

Additional information about the MobileMe 60-day subscription extension and the earlier 30-day extension is available at the Apple Support Web site.