In many ways, Apple’s rollout of its MobileMe synching service has been a textbook example of how not to launch a technology service. Just ask anyone who’s grappled with its outages and glitches. But in one important respect, the company’s doing a stellar job: It’s handling a really difficult situation well.

The latest example is today’s news that current Mobile Me users will get an extra sixty days of service, on top of the free month it extended to Mobile Me early adopters and .Mac veterans a month ago. It’s an appropriate, classy step, but I’m also struck by the honesty of the language that Apple used in announcing the extension:

“The transition from .Mac to MobileMe was rockier than we had hoped.  While we are making a lot of improvements, the MobileMe service is still not up to our standards. We are extending subscriptions 60-days free of charge to express appreciation for our members’ patience as we continue to improve the service.”

Admitting problems in the past tense is unusual enough in the tech biz; admitting them in the present tense, and implying that they’re ongoing in nature, is practically unheard of. I’m sure there are other examples; I just can’t think of any at the moment.

One nitpick: The MobileMe status blog is now three weeks out of date, and doesn’t mention this extension–at least not as of the time I’m blogging this.

Okay, two nitpicks: The Apple site still touts the wonders of MobileMe, which is a little odd given that it’s simultaneously describing it as not being worthy of Apple.

Okay, a meta-nitpick as well: Wouldn’t it have been cool if Apple had declared MobileMe to be in a retroactive free beta, and suspended charges altogether until the service was up to its own standards? You gotta think the goodwill such a move would generate would be more valuable than the cash generated by MobileMe subscriptions.

Of course, Apple’s handling of MobileMe will only be truly successful once the service is working to the satisfaction of folks who pay the company $70-$100 a year for it. If it’s still bumpy sixty days from now, wonder if Apple is prepared to do yet another extension?

Your thoughts?

 
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