AT&T stores to sell MobileMe starting August 2nd

I was inside an AT&T store earlier this evening and overheard one of the associates giving an iPhone customer the low-down on MobileMe. After the associate was done giving his pitch to the customer I asked the AT&T employee if they sold MobileMe in the store. He told me that they didn’t but they would be starting August 2nd.

According to this employee, the $99/year MobileMe subscription will be sold starting August 2nd at AT&T stores and will also come with a $30 rebate. Basically, AT&T employees have been instructed to up-sell any iPhone buyer with MobileMe.

Another interesting nugget of information was around the long awaited iDisk iPhone app that was announced back at WWDC but yet to be released. According to this employee, that app’s release is imminent and could be released in the app store in time to to make the August 2nd date.

As a MobileMe subscriber myself, I’m happy to see Apple really trying to make an effort to get people signed up with the service. The more users there are the more reliable it will be and the more resources Apple will devote to it. Although MobileMe has long seemed like an afterthought for Apple, it’s clear that they are really starting to expand and improve the service. The latest features, including the ability to remotely locate and wipe your iPhone, are extremely unique and useful additions. I’m sure that when AT&T offers MobileMe to iPhone buyers, those will be some of the major selling points of the service.

In regards to the iDisk app, it’s likely to be a big blow to many 3rd party developers that sell similar apps in the productivity section of the app store. File management on the iPhone has been one of the major voids that has been left up to 3rd party developers since the iPhone was first released.