Herb - me?
hehehe. I suppose it's true I have been a Mac advocate of .Mac for all my family, friends, colleagues, etc. Maybe they're the only ones who are signed up, LOL.
It's true that you could set up your own web-hosting service, URL, mail, etc., for less money, but the convenience of the Apple package is worth the premium for most. If you're not using HomePage as a quick and dirty (and easy) tool to share photos, etc. then I guess the package carries less value. Although as you point out, iSync (even if only for Safari bookmarks) is getting better and better and iDisk is clearly a key element for Apple -- and should become moreso as storage is getting cheaper and cheaper and cheaper (Apple's cost dropping and dropping).
You ask a good question about becoming an ISP. It certainly wouldn't be a money-maker for Apple, as that's a brutally competitive business. OTOH, part of Apple's allure is the all-in-one approach to computing. It seemed odd to me that Apple didn't come up with more than it did from the dance it did with Earthlink. It seems to me that the company could come up with a better approach to integrating services packages (AppleCare, .Mac, ISP, software upgrades, etc.) and marketing and selling them better.
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