Apple reportedly begins to transition me.com email addresses to icloud.com

By Rene Ritchie
last updated

What began life as mac.com email address and became me.com with iPhone OS 2 will now be transitioning again, this to time to icloud.com, and reportedly Apple is starting with the just-released iOS 6 beta 3. This according to information obtained by MacRumors. The notice, supplied to developers by Apple, reads in part:

icloud.com email addresses are now available for iCloud mail users. Users signing up for new Apple IDs, or enabling Mail on their iCloud account for the first time, will automatically receive an @icloud.com email address instead of a me.com email address.

Apple released mac.com email as part of iTools in 2000, which became .Mac in 2002, and switched to MobileMe and me.com in 2008. Apple announced iCloud in 2011, but until now had left email addresses set to me.com. Although only developers seem to be getting transitioned, it seems likely that Apple will transition the rest of the user base when iOS 6 goes into general release this fall.

Like the mac.com to me.com transition, previous email address should continue working as aliases -- so anything sent to youruser@me.com will just go to youruser@icloud.com instead.

Personally, I'm looking forward to this. Even though my own .Mac account switched to me.com back in 2008, any time I enter it on my iPhone, Apple automysteriously switches it back to mac.com. So, with any luck, come October when I enter my shiny new icloud.com email address, Apple will finally let me use me.com...

I kid. I jest.

What it will do is make things more uniform and less confusing for mainstream users who right now probably wonder why, when they sign up for iCloud, get an email at me.com. Consistency is a feature when you're talking hundreds of thousands, and eventually hundreds of millions of users.

Having iCloud.com as the persistent name, place, and address iOS users use for online activities keeps everything nice and simple.

For more, see our Ultimate Guide to iCloud or jump into our iCloud forum, and let us know how you feel -- ready to embrace the iCloud.com future, or will you miss the shorter, more personal sounding me.com days?

Source: MacRumors

Rene Ritchie
Rene Ritchie
Contributor

Rene Ritchie is one of the most respected Apple analysts in the business, reaching a combined audience of over 40 million readers a month. His YouTube channel, Vector, has over 90 thousand subscribers and 14 million views and his podcasts, including Debug, have been downloaded over 20 million times. He also regularly co-hosts MacBreak Weekly for the TWiT network and co-hosted CES Live! and Talk Mobile. Based in Montreal, Rene is a former director of product marketing, web developer, and graphic designer. He's authored several books and appeared on numerous television and radio segments to discuss Apple and the technology industry. When not working, he likes to cook, grapple, and spend time with his friends and family.

9 Comments
  • Still much rather have an @me.com address than a longer @iCloud.com. Guess I'll have both now but your have to force me with possible pain of death before I'd ever give out my @iCloud.com address (or lets say $20). IMHO @me.com is much cooler than @iCloud.com, not to mention not as immediately identified as being from Apple going forward and I'm all about being cool and slightly mysterious.
  • Is this something that happens automagically or do you actually have to go and create a new address?
  • Again? WTF? Seriously! This is why I have my mail forwarded from a another email service to iCloud. Imagine the post office changing your snail mail address every few years, just because. Even though Apple will still forward all your @me.com mail to the new domain, it would be quite maddening to change every merchant/social networking/etc account address because of this ludicrous decision. You never know what Apple is going to pull out of their ass next. I expect next year's iPad to not come with a display...sheeze.
  • I'm pretty sure this means all NEW signups will get an @icloud address. If it means they're transitioning existing @me users to @icloud it may be the nail in the coffin that sends me to Google/Android for good.
  • Resistance is futile. Assimilation is inevitable.
  • So will existing me.com owners be able to SEND email as a me.com address after this nonsense is complete?
  • "Having iCloud.com as the persistent name, place, and address iOS users use for online activities keeps everything nice and simple." I thought that was what we were getting by taking a mac.com address. Then I thought that was what we were getting when they changed us to me.com. I hope the next change in a few years is borg.com! Now that would be worth switching for.
  • Yes, or how about @buyaaplstock.com or @buyaniphone.com or @samsungcopiesourstuff.com.
  • What they really need to do if they are trying to get consistency is find a way to convert/transfer/consolidate iTunes IDs with the Apple assigned email. It's so stupid that my iTunes ID is rwillywonka@thechocoaltefactory.com but yet I have a rwillywonka@icloud.com email address assigned by Apple. So either shorten the iTunes ID so it's just the username or allow me to use my icloud.com email instead of whatever email I first used to create the iTunes ID.