So mixed messages again. Is 'Inbox' the next-gen Gmail interface or a hobby project that will get closed down in a year? Momentum has slowed and I've become so dependent on it's workflow I'd be gutted if this was the case. However - I don't believe Google will maintain two email clients in perpetuity. On past experience - they'll fold the functionality of one into the other - partially and imperfectly leaving users i…
No mixed messages here, Google has a penchant of making 2 of everything[1], and they can keep at it for years at a time. ChromeOS & Android, Google Maps and Google Earth (and Waze!), and so on. There is cross-pollination of ideas, and some products eventually coalesce.
> Is 'Inbox' the next-gen Gmail interface or a hobby project
I think the answer is 'neither', just like the iPad wasn't the next-gen MacBook. Inbox is just another email client that is certainly not for everyone, it holds a little too strongly to the inbox zero philosophy to be mainstream.
Having both Inbox and Gmail as separate products makes sense because at their core, Inbox and GMail are different beasts, I use both for different contexts. Inbox is great for organizing my personal email, GMail is great for work email. I wouldn't trust Inbox to properly organize my work email, and I don't have the energy to manually organize my personal email.
1. http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/10/googles-product-stra...