iWeb Getting Sacrificed Along With MobileMe

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Chris



A new Steve Jobs e-mail response has popped up which may cause a few headaches for some Mac users. Apparently, a MacRumors reader has contacted the site to note that Steve Jobs replied to an e-mail that they sent to Jobs about the future of iWeb given the discontinuation of MobileMe in 2012. Jobs replied in his traditionally succinct style, explaining that the user would have to find alternative methods of designing and hosting websites.

“Q: Dear Mr. Jobs,
Will I need to find an alternative website builder and someone to host my sites?
I have invested a lot of time and effort and the thought of re-training sucks more than mobileme ever did.

A: Yep.”
Sent from my iPhone

iWeb, the Apple web design and management program that is part of iLife, has not been given a refresh for a while, prompting some users to speculate that Apple had lost interest in the program and was thinking of discontinuing it. Certainly, the increase in popularity of WordPress and Blogger websites are likely to have impacted highly on iWeb.  When iLife ’11 was released, many users had hoped for updates to iWeb at the same time, but Apple continued to bundle the 2009 version of the program.

While the new iCloud service from Apple has been reported to initially focus on media and music, the service, launching this Fall in the USA and internationally at later dates, will replace MobileMe in terms of device syncing and cloud data storage.  iWeb, a program that has not held a strong reputation in the past, is obviously not part of that strategy.

Build Your Web…

Also on AppleBitch.com:

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  • http://twitter.com/kcwookie Mark Fuller

    I wonder if anyone has considered that the the iWork might have tools that replace iWeb? While iWeb isn’t confined to MobileMe, that was the easiest way to use it. I’ve not opened iWeb in a year or two.

  • http://www.facebook.com/gerald.f.shields Gerald F. Shields Jr.

    I hate to see iWeb go, but RapidWeaver is better and the price is right $59.99. iWeb was good if you didn’t know much about developing web sites, but as you learn the technologies behind it (HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc), then the template-oriented iWeb became limiting and the program tended to generate too much metadata code in your web pages.

  • LarryC

    How in the hell is a simple “Yep” considered to be “Jobs replied in his traditionally succinct style, explaining that the user would have to find alternative methods of designing and hosting websites.” It might be succinct, but there certainly isn’t any explaining.

  • Jgrinhofs

    Check out Sandvox – not the same, but even easier and in many ways better. IMHO what iWeb should have been all along…

  • Anonymous

    I wonder if this means that the “Sites” folder will no longer exist in iDisk? Or that iDisk itself is doomed? I have stuff up there that wasn’t built with iWeb. It’s convenient, and I’d hate to lose it, although it would be easy enough to move it to another hosting account.

  • Prof. Peabody

    In all fairness, iWeb is really unpopular, difficult to work with (unless you use the templates straight out of the box), and hasn’t been updated in years and years when other iLife products have.  The writing has been on the wall for some time.  

    iWeb is sort of in the same category as iDVD.  It’s a software product to allow the non-technical user to produce a product that … no one who is non-technical user really produces anymore, or even *wants* to.  

    People don’t make their own vanity websites like they did in the 90′s much anymore and those who do are the more technically inclined.  Individual users have Facebook pages, or blog sites not websites of their own creation, and businesses are usually going to hire someone to make the website for them. 

    • http://honkj.myopenid.com/ honkj

      iWeb,  ”difficult to work with”????    i guess if you didn’t have any hands,  or feet for that matter it would be “difficult to work with”????   are you insane?   which way were you guided by what “challenged” person? that told you NOT to use a template????  that is the whole point of iWeb….

      no one has ever said iWeb was “difficult to work with”…  only a person who never used it would be presumptuous enough to say that???   my Grandmother for gods sake can ‘work’ with it…. 

      and yes people actually do create web sites,  you don’t have to be a…. well.. i don’t know what you decided people were that created websites,  but believe it or not,  there are tons and tons of websites out there,  created every day,  by everyday people….   

      the only thing you appeared to get right in your post was that Apple has not updated iWeb,  which they should have,  it is a very useful piece of software,  and to prove the point,  someone will write an app to replace it…. TEMPLATES and all…. if not Apple.   

    • http://honkj.myopenid.com/ honkj

      iWeb,  ”difficult to work with”????    i guess if you didn’t have any hands,  or feet for that matter it would be “difficult to work with”????   are you insane?   which way were you guided by what “challenged” person? that told you NOT to use a template????  that is the whole point of iWeb….

      no one has ever said iWeb was “difficult to work with”…  only a person who never used it would be presumptuous enough to say that???   my Grandmother for gods sake can ‘work’ with it…. 

      and yes people actually do create web sites,  you don’t have to be a…. well.. i don’t know what you decided people were that created websites,  but believe it or not,  there are tons and tons of websites out there,  created every day,  by everyday people….   

      the only thing you appeared to get right in your post was that Apple has not updated iWeb,  which they should have,  it is a very useful piece of software,  and to prove the point,  someone will write an app to replace it…. TEMPLATES and all…. if not Apple.   

      • Prof. Peabody

        re: “people not making websites” .. I was talking in generalities of course.  On average people don’t make vanity websites anymore, they sign up for a host or blogging site for which there are built in tools as well many popular wysiwyg apps that do a better job of it than iWeb.  

        re: “difficult to work with” … I said “work with” not “use.”  

        iWeb is easy to use if you don’t do anything untoward and just use the templates with the default everything.  However, even the smallest step outside of that little box will give you more headaches than trying to figure out an old Borland compiler.  iWeb also doesn’t play nice with other web designing software.  Nothing works with iWeb and iWeb works with nothing else. 

        I stand by what I said about the product, but more than anything, iWeb is disappearing because the market just isn’t there anymore.  

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C4LOVT26VG5TTOACNMX4WVQ6PM Fred Gehelmiholtzenstein

          I have several web sites built in iWeb starting from blank white templates.  I’ve done my own graphics and design, built links to my own and other site pages, and serve documents simply with hotlinks.  None of this was difficult.  I won’t use any other tool’s templates because I know what I want my sites to look like.  I’ll continue to use iWeb and find alternatives to MobileMe for hosting.  iWeb doesn’t need to “play nice with other web designing software” because it IS web designing software.  Does Dreamweaver play nice with RapidWeaver?  Does Prof. Peabody play nice with anyone?

          • Prof. Peabody

            “Does Prof. Peabody play nice with anyone?”  

            Cheap shot.  I’m just saying what I think. 

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_C4LOVT26VG5TTOACNMX4WVQ6PM Fred Gehelmiholtzenstein

          I have several web sites built in iWeb starting from blank white templates.  I’ve done my own graphics and design, built links to my own and other site pages, and serve documents simply with hotlinks.  None of this was difficult.  I won’t use any other tool’s templates because I know what I want my sites to look like.  I’ll continue to use iWeb and find alternatives to MobileMe for hosting.  iWeb doesn’t need to “play nice with other web designing software” because it IS web designing software.  Does Dreamweaver play nice with RapidWeaver?  Does Prof. Peabody play nice with anyone?

      • Prof. Peabody

        re: “people not making websites” .. I was talking in generalities of course.  On average people don’t make vanity websites anymore, they sign up for a host or blogging site for which there are built in tools as well many popular wysiwyg apps that do a better job of it than iWeb.  

        re: “difficult to work with” … I said “work with” not “use.”  

        iWeb is easy to use if you don’t do anything untoward and just use the templates with the default everything.  However, even the smallest step outside of that little box will give you more headaches than trying to figure out an old Borland compiler.  iWeb also doesn’t play nice with other web designing software.  Nothing works with iWeb and iWeb works with nothing else. 

        I stand by what I said about the product, but more than anything, iWeb is disappearing because the market just isn’t there anymore.  

    • http://honkj.myopenid.com/ honkj

      iWeb,  ”difficult to work with”????    i guess if you didn’t have any hands,  or feet for that matter it would be “difficult to work with”????   are you insane?   which way were you guided by what “challenged” person? that told you NOT to use a template????  that is the whole point of iWeb….

      no one has ever said iWeb was “difficult to work with”…  only a person who never used it would be presumptuous enough to say that???   my Grandmother for gods sake can ‘work’ with it…. 

      and yes people actually do create web sites,  you don’t have to be a…. well.. i don’t know what you decided people were that created websites,  but believe it or not,  there are tons and tons of websites out there,  created every day,  by everyday people….   

      the only thing you appeared to get right in your post was that Apple has not updated iWeb,  which they should have,  it is a very useful piece of software,  and to prove the point,  someone will write an app to replace it…. TEMPLATES and all…. if not Apple.   

    • Doctorno

      I have to disagree:  iWeb is very easy to use, and I’ve received countless compliments on the end results.  I do not know HTML and I don’t want to learn when the tools of iWeb negate such a need.  

      I’m hopeful that rumors of iWeb’s early demise are unfounded.  RapidWeaver may be the logical alternative, but I’d rather not migrate at all.  And I don’t care that I have to host my website created in iWeb must be hosted outside of MobileMe – that’s not going to be a problem

  • Ted

    I’d hate to see iWeb go. As much as it HASN’T progressed over the past few years, it IS friendly and easy. Designed for the average person, not the web geek. Quite frankly, if they do dismantle it, it looks like we just can’t trust the company to stand behind its products. Why then should we pay a premium for them? I’ll tell you what else I’m not willing to pay a premium for: their stock price. I’ve supported this company ferociously for years. I don’t fell like I’m getting that support in return. Don’t turn me from fan boy into van boy: gettin’ outta Apple town. Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll create iWeb in iCloud. TBD