As soon as I read that Apple had released this app I was thrilled. Finally an Apple-made app that connected to an Apple service. Surely this app must do much more than the already superb app MobileFiles. Wrong.

There are some aspects that compete with MobileFiles very well, including how easy it is to share files directly from the phone, password protect files, etc. Besides that, the only thing that MobileMe for iPhone beats MobileFiles at is the interface, and even that’s a close call. Here’s a list of why the Apple-made app falls short of expectations:

iWork file formats support

The description of the MobileMe for iPhone app claims support for all iWork documents, but I wasn’t able to open anything of the sort, including Pages and Numbers documents. This really doesn’t surprise me at all considering that Apple always seems to have problems supporting their own file formats. Word documents of course opened without a problem.

Support for multiple accounts

I was completely taken by surprise when I saw I couldn’t add a second account. To many this may not really matter, but for myself, along with I’m sure many others, it’s a necessity. I have my personal MobileMe account along with a work account I share with others. Having both is crucial.

Offline support

Apple would never do this, at least not yet, because they refuse to allow us to use our phones as more of a computer rather than a video game/phone device. Once connected through their MobileMe solution you can only view files. With MobileFiles you’re able to download any file directly to your phone to view while offline. You can also upload files to your iDisk, move files, and more.

Long story short, Apple has a long way to go to catch up to MobileFiles.

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Tags: Apps, Fail, iPhone, Review