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Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

blogs.dropbox.com

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Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#351

Post by gcr »

nikolay wrote: post #47
TheBiv wrote: post #5

Here is more detail about Dropbox Paper: http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/15/dropbox-paper-team-collab...

They will focus on Paper... until they decide to axe that, too , when they see they can't compete with Google. I think the axe-happy mentality sends the wrong signals when considering products. I'm not gonna use Paper, really, I'm gonna phase off Dropbox as well. I'm not happy they killed Carousel. It was a small simple product - maybe they need a couple of developers to keep it going. It doesn't have to be fancy. I…

> It was a small simple product.

Dropbox itself is just a folder that syncs. Small and simple, right?

Carousel is just a camera roll that syncs. Small and simple, right?

There is an amazing amount of engineering and planning that goes into both products though.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#352

Post by ssharp »

grandalf wrote: post #318

I've been using carousel and have switched a lot of family members to it. I was using Snapjoy before (which Dropbox acquired and killed), and had done the same thing. I find the announcement about Carousel extremely disappointing. I'm definitely going to think twice about using Dropbox for anything other than simple file storage in the future. Pictures are peoples' lives, their families, and their memories. This is a…

This is one of the reasons I just accept the flaws with iCloud Photos and go with it. My other family members can use it easily enough and I don't have to worry about it going away.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#354

Post by roddds »

erikpukinskis wrote: post #311
untog wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because there simply isn't money to be made in being an e-mail startup. Or, more correctly, there isn't enough money to be made to satisfy VC investors. Mailbox and the like could have lived quite comfortably as paid-for apps with comfortable but small levels of profit, but that isn't what Silicon Valley rewards. EDIT: also, IIRC Apple's restrictions on background processing meant that they needed to have ev…

That's because making a big pile of money the Silicon Valley way requires two things: a product, and a moat. It's not hard to create an email product, but email moats are hard because it's an anarchist technology by design.

Would you mind explaining what does "a moat" mean in this context?

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#355

Post by burnte »

jessedhillon wrote: post #228
thescriptkiddie wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid anyone share abandoned code. Where I work we incinerate anything potentially useful when we're done with it. That way no dirty freeloaders can take advantage of it.

Let Pa be the probability that some piece of your open-sourced codebase reveals an important technique or strategy to your competitor, thus leveling a technological advantage you have, Let Ca be the cost of that lost advantage, Let Cb be the value of good will from the open source community In what case is Cb bigger than (Pa * Ca)?

When abandoning a market and an app, there is no strategic advantage in that code. This means the solution to that equation is CaCa.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#356

Post by dmbaggett »

gcr wrote: post #342
dmbaggett wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I co-founded ITA Software and have been using some of the proceeds from the sale to Google to fund an email startup. ( http://inky.com ) The challenges outlined in this thread are all accurate. If you're thinking about putting effort (or money) behind an email startup, think again. I simply don't believe it's doable for a normal startup (i.e., one without a crazy rich guy plowing money into it until it's good enough)…

I tried Inky when it was a "show HN" thread two(?) years ago. It was solid then, and I'm sure it's only gotten better now.

Thanks. It is vastly better, in pretty much every way. We also support Android and Exchange now, which we didn't back then.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#357

Post by burnte »

adrianmacneil wrote: post #52
calgoo wrote: post #39

I wish they could open source Mailbox at least... That way it might survive. [1] "Will Mailbox be open-sourced? Unfortunately not. We gave a lot of thought to open-sourcing the underlying system, but this is ultimately not something we will support." [1] https://www.mailboxapp.com/faq/

I imagine Mailbox has a heavy server component, which would be non-trivial to get set up and running on your own.

Then OS the previous version that got them purchased by Dropbox.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#358

Post by erikb »

It always feels awkward when reading such a note, seeing that it gets a lot of upvotes and never heard about any of these products before. What was mailbox? Like many other people I'm pretty unhappy with the mailbox choices I have nowadays. In fact, I have to use four(!) mailbox programs to handle everything I need. Pain in the trashcan, I tell ya.

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#359

Post by erikb »

cm2012 wrote: post #8
schneidmaster wrote: post #3

Ugh. Yet another intriguing email startup being acquihired and killed off by a more-established tech company (see also: Sparrow). It's 2015 and I still bounce around email clients every couple months because all of the major options have substantial flaws.

What do you not like about Outlook or Gmail (I think the market leaders)?

Seriously how can you even like Outlook? Yes people need to use it, but want? Does anybody really know other mail programs and wants to use Outlook?

Re: Dropbox closing Carousel and Mailbox

#360

Post by Analemma_ »

roddds wrote: post #354
erikpukinskis wrote: post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's because making a big pile of money the Silicon Valley way requires two things: a product, and a moat. It's not hard to create an email product, but email moats are hard because it's an anarchist technology by design.

Would you mind explaining what does "a moat" mean in this context?

Platform lock-in.
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