Apple today introduced MobileMe, an Internet service that pushes email, contacts and calendars to applications on the iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs.

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The new service offers a desktop-like experience through any browser. "Think of MobileMe as 'Exchange for the rest of us,'" said Steve Jobs, Apple CEO. "Now users who are not part of an enterprise that runs Exchange can get the same push email, push calendars and push contacts that the big guys get."

MobileMe includes Mail, Contacts and Calendar, as well as Gallery for viewing and sharing photos and iDisk for storing and exchanging documents online.

With MobileMe email account folders, messages and status indicators look identical. New emails are pushed to the iPhone over cellular or Wi-Fi networks. Push also keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes are automatically pushed to other devices. It works with the applications on the iPhone and iPod touch, Microsoft Outlook for the PC, and Mac OS X applications, Mail, Address Book and iCal, as well as the MobileMe suite.

Providing access to Mail, Contacts and Calendar, MobileMe allows users to switch between applications with a single click.

Gallery shares photos on the web. Users can upload, rearrange, rotate and title photos from any browser; post photos from an iPhone; allow visitors to download print quality images; and contribute photos to an album. MobileMe iDisk stores and manages files online with drag and drop filing. It includes 20GB of online storage that can be used for email, contacts, calendar, photos, movies and documents.

MobileMe, available on July 11, is a subscription-based service with 20GB of storage for $99 per year for individuals and $149 for a Family Pack, which includes one master account with 20GB of storage and four Family Member accounts with 5GB of storage each.

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