Apple IDs are the backbone of Apple’s entire online strategy. If you’ve ever purchased an app, a song, or even MobileMe, you’ve set one up at some point. Any sane person would try desperately to only use one Apple ID, which is tied to an email account, but some haven’t been that diligent, and instead have managed to create multiple Apple IDs. In some cases, Apple has even added to the problem, including when they gave .Mac users new me.com accounts.
MacRumors is reporting that Apple is working on a new process for letting customers merge their Apple IDs into a single login credential, in an attempt to clean up their system. Apparently iCloud is causing some problems with Apple IDs. A couple of people have emailed Tim Cook directly, and received responses from an executive team that pointed out that the Apple ID team is aware of the problem, and they’re working on a way to let customers merge their accounts.
I don’t know too much about it, since I’m in Canada and haven’t really taken iCloud for a spin yet; however, I do have multiple Apple IDs. I have my original Apple ID, which was set up when I first made the switch from Windows to OS X all those years ago. I now have a second Apple ID, which I set up to get American content before iTunes movies and television episodes made their way to Canada. It doesn’t end there either. I have a .Mac account and a Me.com email account, as well as a developer account with a fifth email address. That’s five Apple IDs for one person, and I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it’s getting painfully difficult to manage them all. Sure, it’s all my fault. I created the Apple IDs, but it sure would be nice to have a way to get back to a fresh start.
If I could, I would merge them all down to one, or maybe two (Canada and US) Apple IDs. It would make my life a little bit easier.
I should probably point out that this problem isn’t unique to Apple, I have just as many Google Accounts, both personal and business, and I often find myself wishing that I could just merge all of those accounts as well. Hopefully Google is working on the exact same thing too.
So how many Apple IDs do you have? Would you merge them?
Source: MacRumors and Chris De Jabet
