WebProNews

Apple today sent an email to all MobileMe users apologizing for the problematic launch of the online push service.

The service was supposed to be available Friday to coincide with the iPhone 3G's launch, but MobileMe's service was unavailable, had slow performance and unexpected logouts.

Apple will be offering customers a free contract extension. "We want to apologize to our customers and thank them for their patience, so we are going to be extending all current MobileMe subscriptions by 30 days free of charge," said Apple's Bill Evans.

The email continued,"Although core services such as Mail, iDisk, Sync, Back to My PC and Gallery went relatively smoothly, the new MobileMe web applications had lots of problems initially. Fortunately, we have worked through those problems and the Web apps are now up and running."

The email also said,"Another snag we have run into is our use of the word "push" in describing everything under the MobileMe umbrella. While all email, contact or calendar changes on the iPhone and the web apps are immediately synced to and from the MobileMe "cloud," changes made on a PC or Mac take up to 15 minutes to sync with the cloud and your other devices."