Apple on Thursday notified resellers that boxed copies of its MobileMe service were being discontinued, but that doesn’t mean anything is happening to service.

[ad#Google Adsense 300×250 in story]Rumors have been going crazy lately that MobileMe was going to go through a major overall and may even be made free. Naturally, when Apple discontinued the boxed versions of the product today, speculation went into overdrive.

MobileMe was also taken off Apple’s online store, but that was also the boxed copy.

Personally, I think there’s a very simple explanation. Maybe so simple that it’s been overlooked.

If you’ve ever purchased a boxed copy of MobileMe, you know the only thing in the box is a code. The code allows you to go online and sign-up for the service.

As environmentally friendly as Apple is these days with all of its products and corporate policies, I just don’t think that they saw the sense in shipping boxes with a slip of paper in it and then telling you to go online. Why not just go online in the first place and be done with it.

MobileMe is integrated into the Mac OS X and you can still purchase the service by signing up for a free trial and buying online.

Apple executives said at the company’s annual shareholders meeting on Wednesday that its North Carolina data center is expected to open this spring. That facility will run MobileMe and iTunes when it opens.

I don’t expect any major changes to MobileMe in the near future.