THE THIN WHITE DUKE of Cupertino has made an unprecedented move by admitting that Apple made a big mistake rolling out its paid-for cloud computing service Mobile Me in one go.

Ars Technica says that it has seen an internal memo issued to all Apple employees which admits that the service was launched too early and was "Not up to Apple's standards".

"It was a mistake to launch Mobile Me at the same time as Iphone 3G, Iphone 2.0 software and the App Store," said Jobs. "We all had more than enough to do, and Mobile Me could have been delayed without consequence."

Jobs reckons the service should have been rolled out one part at a time rather than trying to offer everything to everyone on one day, and a restructuring of the entire online department at Apple is expected to be announced in the next few days.

Whether heads will roll because of the shambolic launch remains to be seen but, as Apple always plays its cards close to its chest, we will probably never know.

"The Mobile Me launch clearly demonstrates that we have more to learn about Internet services," Jobs is reported to have said. "And learn we will. The vision of Mobile Me is both exciting and ambitious, and we will press on to make it a service we are all proud of by the end of this year." µ