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Google is discontinuing Inbox

fastcompany.com

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Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#54

Post by coldtea »

ihatethem wrote: post #23
ulfw wrote: post #5

Not trying to be facetious or anything, but honestly I wonder why at this point anybody would bother using any Google product besides the triumvirate of Search/Maps/Gmail. What's the point?

While you're not being "facetious" you're being "glib". Inbox was obviously a place the gmail team used for experimentation and now they are folding it back in. Besides you're making it sound like there was some huge cost involved in adopting or in abandoning Inbox, which there isn't.

>Inbox was obviously a place the gmail team used for experimentation

What was "obvious" about it? Here's how Google introduced it: "Inbox by Gmail is a new app from the Gmail team. Inbox is an organized place to get things done and get back to what matters. Bundles keep emails organized."

Do you see anything about it being an "experiment" to eventually throw away? Not to mention Gmail already had the Labs feature for experiments.

In fact, what 2 Google representatives had said at the time was:

""We hope, in the long run, that most of our users will be on Inbox." (Alex Gawley)

"We care deeply about Gmail and Gmail users, but in the long run, as we add more features to Inbox and respond to user feedback, we hope that everyone will want to use Inbox instead of Gmail. Ultimately, our users will decide." (Jason Cornwell, Inbox's lead designer)

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#56

Post by tosh »

I think by now it would be worth for Google to re-think their branding strategy. How about releasing new experimental products off-brand? Google by now has a reputation of discontinuing products (some very vocal) users love.

This makes it very difficult for new Google-branded products to gain traction. Especially if the onboarding is costly & discontinuation would hurt a lot (e.g. Google Cloud, Dart, productivity apps, …).

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#57

Post by tosh »

tosh wrote: post #56

I think by now it would be worth for Google to re-think their branding strategy. How about releasing new experimental products off-brand? Google by now has a reputation of discontinuing products (some very vocal) users love. This makes it very difficult for new Google-branded products to gain traction. Especially if the onboarding is costly & discontinuation would hurt a lot (e.g. Google Cloud, Dart, productivity app…

Another approach could be to build a brand around their 'enterprise' offerings with SLAs & LTS and make it more explicit which products are covered and which aren't.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#58

Post by ssijak »

Ok, this was the last thing that will push me off of Google services. I was already reluctant to use their new apps and services and was pondering moving anyway. Anyhow only thing that does not have proper replacement is Photos but I will manage.

Re: Google is discontinuing Inbox

#59

Post by munificent »

fra wrote: post #4
nathancahill wrote: post #2

Everyone suspected it for a while. Their active Twitter account refused for months to say when the app would be updated for the iPhone X. Personally, I suspect that they painted themselves into a bit of a corner with the tech stack they choose for Inbox. They used a unique C++ to JS compiler to run Inbox in the browser. This worked decently well in Chrome, but the experience in other browsers has been a lot choppier.…

When you have a successful product people love, you don't sunset it because the tech stack is too cumbersome. This has to mean that the product wasn't seeing the adoption they were hoping for.

Love don't pay the bills.

If the product isn't helping the bottom line, companies will sunset it. "Free beer" would be the most widely adopted offering a bar could have, but it's not going to be good business for the bar.

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