Apple's new .Mac SDK allows Mac developers to use the flat-fee personal networked storage service with their applications. Remotely accessible storage, backups, collaboration, and sharing could mean big things for some apps. I've been thinking a lot about service-enabled personal applications, but I tend to stop short of implementation because I don't want to host anything, or require users to install services themselves.

Their descriptions of .Mac using open standards might mean non-Mac apps could take advantage, but I wonder. At least, the SDK is only for the Mac OS X platform ("requires no programming on your part"). It would be especially cool if any WebDAV client (for instance) could log in with my credentials and download, modify and upload data. Deserves a closer look.

I also wonder if there's a need for personal data services with app-specific service-side functionality, or if basic storage is sufficient for most needs. Perhaps some features, like metadata-empowered service-side search, could be implemented in a general way, like a .Mac Spotlight service.