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Sparrow acquired by Google

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Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#101

Post by tvon »

rogerchucker wrote: post #55
rglover wrote: post #46

This is getting extremely frustrating. Sparrow is a fabulous email client both for iOS and Mac. I love and use both daily and this is fairly devastating. I was really looking forward to the products development, growth, and future releases. To read this announcement and hear that they won't be working on their apps but on Google projects is sad. To bigger companies: chill out with the "acquihires." If anything, do wh…

Clearly Sparrow was created for Gmail - so it's in Google's best interest to use those guts to enhance the Gmail app and dump the Sparrow app itself eventually. I thought that statement about not adding features is a clear indicator of that. I don't see why one would get frustrated with that or ... feel devastated about it.

A good app has been EOL'd so the developer(s) can go work on a known crappy app. We've gone from "known good" to "hopefully this will work out and the gmail iOS app will be good"... how is that not frustrating if you're a fan of the iOS apps?

As for the Sparrow desktop app, well, obviously Google isn't going to be developing a native desktop app for Gmail...

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#102

Post by rglover »

justauser wrote: post #63
rogerchucker wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Google was the best destination for Sparrow simply because sparrow was created for Gmail. If Apple acquired it then it's focus would be iCloud email which is garbage.

If I read the grandparent correctly(and I do agree), the best destination is not Apple, Google or anyone for that matter but rather to stay in the game as an independent. Where are the small companies that are building for sustainment? All of these product disappearances do have a long-term effect of causing users to hesitate before signing up to use your offering.

That's exactly what I'm talking about. Especially in the case of a product that had revenue/customers, I can't see why you'd want to quit just to go get a job. Sure you'll make some money and your work may have a larger scope to impact, but why not be known as that awesome company that makes awesome things?

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#104

Post by 3am_hackernews »

quarterto wrote: post #6

I bloody well hope they continue development, and it becomes the official desktop/iPhone client. I love Sparrow, and would hate to see it vanish into the "acquired company" ether.

I was hoping for the same. But I think they are not going to do any more development on their Sparrow client according to the latest email they sent to the users. Sucks for the current paid users, but hey who cares once they get a million more users and many more $$, right?

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#105

Post by protomyth »

robin_reala wrote: post #33
SquareWheel wrote: post #4

Ah, just bought Sparrow for iOS. Expecting it to go freeware shortly. edit: Ah, and they're not going to be adding any new features. http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/20/3172222/google-buys-sparro...

Not everything that Google buys does. SketchUp was never free as far as I can remember.

SketchUp had free and paid versions

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#108

Post by uptown »

ceejayoz wrote: post #75
atourgates wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who bought Sparrow on the day it was released - and is in love with it - this feels like a big middle finger to the customers who have been supporting them. The core of my disappointment is the expectation of future development that comes with buying into a relatively new piece of software. I didn't buy Sparrow thinking I was paying for a piece of software that was feature-complete. I bought Sparrow mail a…

Now imagine if you'd bought it last weekend in their half-off sale. https://twitter.com/lifehacker/statuses/223750237490126849 "Let's make as much money from our abandonware as possible before we have to tell everyone it's abandonware."

That's when I finally bought-in. The thing has a critical bug with iOS6 ... no clue if it'll ever get resolved.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#109

Post by OmegaHN »

mmahemoff wrote: post #61

Google recently acquired QuickOffice too. So now Google owns native clients for GMail and Docs. In addition, they're continuing to build native apps for GDrive, Google Plus, and probably others. This is similar to GitHub and Twitter. Both grew out of the web, but have increasingly acquired or built desktop clients, not to mention mobile ones. And Facebook has made an about-turn on HTML5 everywhere and focusing heavil…

This is one thing that I've thought about Web 2.0 (now that it is in full swing). Countless dollars seem to be going to trying to reinvent the desktop inside the browser, when really the internet should supplement it as an expansion to its capabilities. Dropbox is the best example of this: there is a web client, but Dropbox truly shines as a simple folder that is the same across your devices. It takes the folder system and improves on it, rather than doing away with it altogether.
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