iWeb heads for the island of discontinued Apple products

Joins a long sad list that includes AppleWorks, Hypercard, OpenDoc and Shake

Source: Apple Inc.

If the e-mail to a MacRumors reader attributed to Steve Jobs is real -- and there is no reason to think it isn't -- Apple's CEO has confirmed with a "yep" what thousands of loyal Apple (AAPL) customers feared: The iWeb service that Apple has provided for building and hosting websites, blogs and podcasts since January 2006 will be set adrift in July 2012.

That's when, to paraphrase a remark Jobs made in 1997 when he discontinued OpenDoc, the company is scheduled to "put a bullet through" MobileMe's head.

By then, MobileMe will have been superseded by iCloud -- by all accounts a more powerful and, at $0 per year vs. $99, far more affordable service.

Nothing, however, has been said about replacing iWeb, and Apple PR has yet to reply to our query on the matter. Until then, we can only assume that iWeb will go the way of .Mac HomePage, Apple's previous aborted effort to provide Web hosting services for its users.

To get a feel for what HomePage's ignominious end was like, see Apple's official FAQ below the fold (note all the references to the soon-to-be defunct MobileMe). Click here for an annotated list of discontinued Apple products.

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Posted in: Apple, AppleWorks, Discontinued, iDisk, iLife, IWeb, MacRumors, MobileMe, OpenDoc, Steve Jobs

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