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Sparrow acquired by Google

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Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#121
post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Timing a sale right before an announcement you're well aware will drop sales numbers off a steep cliff looks pretty deceptive to me.

Deals fall apart at the last minute all. the. time. You can't just stop doing business.

You can delay your half-off sale for a week.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#122
post #77

First Thunderbird then this, what's a native-email-app user to do? I wonder what ever happened to that Letters email app for OS X that people were wanting to build? There was a flurry of activity and complaints about Mail.app and then nothing.

I believe the Letters project died. Sad as I was really looking forward to it.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#123
post #116
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Sorry, but Gmail isn't a crappy app in my way of thinking. It was the best webmail in 2004, and it still is. You may not like it, but that doesn't extrapolate to crappiness. Although I'm sorry that Sparrow is being end-of-lifed, Gmail is a best of breed web app. well, obviously Google isn't going to be developing a native desktop app for Gmail. Sounds like a feature to me, not a bug. Desktop software is going out. Wh…

When I say "crappy app" I'm talking about the iOS gmail app.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#124
post #90

Sparrow had a $4.99 (half-off) sale last weekend ( https://twitter.com/lifehacker/statuses/223750237490126849 ). Borders on fraud, if you ask me - scamming people into buying what they had to have known by then they were planning on turning into abandonware a week later.

Great software for half off doesn't seem like a scam to me. The app still works.

Maybe $4.99 is a lot of money to him. It could be the amount which makes or breaks his startup. ;)

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#125
post #116
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Sorry, but Gmail isn't a crappy app in my way of thinking. It was the best webmail in 2004, and it still is. You may not like it, but that doesn't extrapolate to crappiness. Although I'm sorry that Sparrow is being end-of-lifed, Gmail is a best of breed web app. well, obviously Google isn't going to be developing a native desktop app for Gmail. Sounds like a feature to me, not a bug. Desktop software is going out. Wh…

I think the known crappy app the commenter was referring to was the Gmail iPhone app, not Gmail in general. The app isn't nearly as good as Sparrow.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#126
post #116
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Sorry, but Gmail isn't a crappy app in my way of thinking. It was the best webmail in 2004, and it still is. You may not like it, but that doesn't extrapolate to crappiness. Although I'm sorry that Sparrow is being end-of-lifed, Gmail is a best of breed web app. well, obviously Google isn't going to be developing a native desktop app for Gmail. Sounds like a feature to me, not a bug. Desktop software is going out. Wh…

gmail's great, but the gmail iOS client is bad.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#127
post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The entire 'mission' of the company was supposed to be providing a decent Mac/iOS client for Gmail. Now they're cancelling the product and working within Google? I don't see any reason to believe Google will find religion and release a decent Mac/iOS client when as a company they're obsessed with pushing web apps over native apps. If they wanted a decent Gmail client on iOS they should have cancelled their own app an…

If the entire mission of the company was to make a Gmail-only mail client, why did they allow the use of other IMAP services? They should have stuck with Gmail only if that was their true mission.

To add value and broaden the appeal. The first version of Sparrow for Mac only supported Gmail. Even after adding IMAP, there was no reason anyone who didn't use Gmail would buy Sparrow, because everything it did differently from the standard Mac Mail app was oriented around Gmail.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#128
When I pay premium prices for apps it is under the assumption that I am helping the developers maintain and improve the application.

If you are hoping to sell, you should price your app at $.99 and hope to get as many users as possible. That also helps me know what your plan is.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#129
post #12

Great to see Google investing in email UX. Sparrow is awesome and bringing the Sparrow UX ideals to Gmail will be a big boost forward. The Sparrow co-founder and CEO Dom Leca discusses Gmail in some detail here... Interviewer: Why can’t Google write a mail client for the iPhone that’s worth a crap? Sparrow CEO: Because they don’t really care about it. I mean, they’re not in the native app business, and all that matte…

I hope that this means that they're investing in email UX. That's my optimistic take on the acquisition. My pessimistic take on it is that they're just getting talented developers and product folks and they're going to have them working on something completely different.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#130
post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the entire mission of the company was to make a Gmail-only mail client, why did they allow the use of other IMAP services? They should have stuck with Gmail only if that was their true mission.

To add value and broaden the appeal. The first version of Sparrow for Mac only supported Gmail. Even after adding IMAP, there was no reason anyone who didn't use Gmail would buy Sparrow, because everything it did differently from the standard Mac Mail app was oriented around Gmail.

Nonsense. I've been using Sparrow as my primary email client and I don't use GMail. I like the GMail-esque concept of archiving items out of your inbox and ultimately aiming for inbox zero. It works on third-party IMAP just as it does on GMail.

I am sad to see Sparrow go. :/

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