I'm of the opinion that Apple made the right choice in keeping their brand clean from all the privacy issues with those free ad-supported services, opting instead for classical b2c relationships (service to client in exchange for money) with the implied privacy protection of typically confidential business to customer relationships.
It seems like Apple could retain these benefits by including a MobileMe subscription with every iDevice, but not making it outright "free". Once 90% of iCustomers have MobileMe accounts, Apple would be motivated to improve it and add more Google-like cloud syncing.
I'd like to see them split up the various features of .me, and allow you to buy only the ones you want, similar to what they're doing with iWork on the iPad. I'd buy email for $20-25/yr, maybe idisk for another $20, and Find My Phone for [$5 per incident or $15/yr] (which I'd hopefully never have to buy, but would be more than happy to fork over for should the need arise). The rest of the stuff, they can keep.
[edit]Changed suggested price of Find My Phone from $10/incident before someone had replied to it, but then I noticed my edit made his reply not make sense, hence this note.[/edit]
I use Find my iPhone all the time; not just when I've left my phone at the diner (I never have), but when I can't find my phone in my apartment also. A roommate once used it to find her phone, which turned out to be in the fridge for some reason.
It seems like Apple could retain these benefits by including a MobileMe subscription with every iDevice, but not making it outright "free". Once 90% of iCustomers have MobileMe accounts, Apple would be motivated to improve it and add more Google-like cloud syncing.