story
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MobileMe
.Mac: July 17, 2002 – July 9, 2008
MobileMe: July 9, 2008 – June 30, 2012
iCloud was launched on October 12, 2011, one year before Apple entering Prism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICloud
The main difference before iCloud was that you had to pay for it. I can however remember that I've had free .me account before iCloud, so even .me must have had enough users.
It is fun to think of Steve Jobs as the lone person saying "fuck you" to the NSA. But it isn't realistic. It isn't like the other companies are run by meek people who love bending over to authorities.
Looking at the PRISM company list, we are talking data service companies with users in the tens of millions (minus the oddball Paltalk). Apple just wasn't in that group until recently.
That's incitement enough to try to get them on board.
Why go after the myriad of handset manufacturers when you could just get the network providers on board?
