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Sparrow acquired by Google

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Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#201

Post by justauser »

eps wrote: post #172
justauser wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well said. We're seeing a lot of "ship and dump" from startups these days. I'm to the point now where I don't recommend a startup to friends and family or use for business purposes unless their product is self-hostable(and release of source code upon an acquisition or corporate dissolution) or open-source. As you can imagine, the number of products I recommend has dwindled to almost nothing since I've been burned so…

Can you give examples of what you didn't recommend for the reasons stated?

Unless the product or service meets the qualifications I mentioned then you can presume I'm not going to recommend it. Some companies that have been acquired have "done right" and released their product as open source afterwards. I would like to see more companies make this part of their agreement before purchase or use. While I'm comfortable with many things technical, many are not but open-sourcing a popular product will more likely than not allow those non-technical users to just pick up the use of that product with other providers.

A recent example is from Moxie's company Whispersystems and the open-sourcing of their Red Phone product. This came after their acquisition/sale by Twitter.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4256801

Does all of this greatly reduce my access to the latest and greatest? Yes it does but then often what is portrayed as the greatest by popularity is not necessarily a great product. And one further note of clarification, if this service is meant to be consumed in a disposable nature then obviously I've got no qualms about something like that as I enjoy actively participating in the world. There's a reason for pragmatism.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#202

Post by ben0x539 »

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…

In any other context I'd hope for them to open-source their efforts if they're giving up on the project anyway, but I guess that's not the iOS way.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#203

Post by larrywright »

mey wrote: post #81
rogerchucker wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Like when Microsoft bought Lookout? edit: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/12/24.html

Actually, this is a counterpoint. There was a period of time where Lookout was unavailable, but then it was incorporated into Outlook proper. The search in Outlook 2010 is very fast.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#204

Post by fceccon »

jhawk28 wrote: post #115
jcurbo wrote: 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.

You could check out http://www.postbox-inc.com/

Sadly it only work on OS X and Windows.

Anyone knows a good email client for Gnome? Something that does only email.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#205

Post by Goronmon »

atourgates wrote: post #67
kyleslattery wrote: post #35

The email Sparrow is sending out, looks like there won't be any future feature additions: Hello, We're excited to let you know that Sparrow has been acquired by Google! You can view our public announcement here, but I wanted to reach out directly to make sure you were aware of the news. We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as…

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…

The core of my disappointment is the expectation of future development that comes with buying into a relatively new piece of software.

I don't know. This doesn't seem like the most useful stance to take when buying new software. You are almost always going to be disappointed. Nothing lasts for an eternity, whether due to acquisitions, laziness, burnout, etc. I think it's always better going into software purchases with the mindset that you are paying for the current feature set, and anything in addition is just gravy.

How long should they have supported the product with new updates? 6 months, a year, two years, 10 years? Or just until you got sick of it, or found something better?

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#207

Post by da_n »

codyjames wrote: post #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.

While it is a shame to the app effectively killed, calling it premium priced is just a reflection of how the app store has forced developers to push prices to the absolute bottom. Ad-in the fact that they had no recurring revenue model, getting a ton of new users could actually have been a false economy for them. They did not owe users an explanation of their future business plans, that's not how it works.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#209

Post by archildress »

w1ntermute wrote: post #184
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…

> 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. I think it's a matter of perspective. As someone who doesn't use and h…

I see your point, but the difference is that you had no expectations. As someone who purchased Sparrow (both on iPhone and Mac) I had high hopes for it continuing to grow, add new features, etc. Sure, as a Google user, you will gain something - but it's more of a happy surprise for you and a disappointment for us Sparrow users.

Re: Sparrow acquired by Google

#210

Post by rhizome »

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…

What you are experiencing is tantamount to the motivation that birthed the GPL.
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