For six years not much has changed with Appple's .Mac service, but that could be about to change. It seems that Apple is looking to rename the service to Mobile Me, and revamp the entire suite of tools while they are at it. All references to the .Mac name in OS X 10.5.3 have been replaced with an easy to change in the future variable.

%@ is the new name of Apple’s online service (was .Mac)

That is because a variable can be changed in a software update from Apple. This localized string from iCal makes it very clear what is going on. Plainly, you can see the service has a new name, and it explicitly says the name is not .Mac. To up the speculation even more, strings in the new iPhone SDK make references to 'Mobile Me'.

A simple Who Is reveals that Apple owns the domain 'Me.com' which is presumably where all the .Mac email addresses would go. There is no need to worry, as all your email from your .Mac account and corresponding email address will be forwarded to the new account.

Apple filed the trademark for the name Mobile Me back in 2006, and it was never known what they would use it for. More rumors over the name change is a sub $50 service, and push email support. It is also rumored the changes could allow over the air syncing of .Mac utilities to the iPhone 2.0.