Dropbox acquires simplified iOS e-mail client Mailbox [u]
Mailbox, a popular new e-mail sorting service for Apple's iOS, has been acquired by cloud-based storage provider Dropbox, it was announced on Friday.
Update: In a follow up report, GigaOm cites inside sources as saying Dropbox paid between $50 million and $100 million for Mailbox.
The addition was revealed by Dropbox on the company's official blog, where it was teased that there are plans to make Mailbox "even better," as well as get it "into as many people's hands as possible." No price for the acquisition was given.
"Like many of you, when we discovered Mailbox we fell in love?it was simple, delightful, and beautifully engineered," wrote Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. "Many have promised to help us with our overflowing inboxes, but the Mailbox team actually delivered."
AppleInsider was given an advanced look at Mailbox last month and found it was a solid addition to any e-mail workflow. The app's unique interface allows users to turn a Gmail inbox into a type of "to-do" list, where each message can be "snoozed" for later perusal.
For now, Mailbox is an iPhone-only app, which features gestures that allow users to swipe left or right to activate snooze timers and send message strings to the archive folder or a customizable lists folder. E-mails can also be deleted with a longer swipe.
Apple attempted to acquire Dropbox in 2009 with a nine-figure offer and a personal pitch from then-CEO Steve Jobs. When Dropbox declined, Apple pushed ahead with its own iCloud service, which allows users to automatically sync data, but works quite different from Dropbox and lacks a traditional user-accessible file structure.
Update: In a follow up report, GigaOm cites inside sources as saying Dropbox paid between $50 million and $100 million for Mailbox.
The addition was revealed by Dropbox on the company's official blog, where it was teased that there are plans to make Mailbox "even better," as well as get it "into as many people's hands as possible." No price for the acquisition was given.
"Like many of you, when we discovered Mailbox we fell in love?it was simple, delightful, and beautifully engineered," wrote Dropbox founders Drew Houston and Arash Ferdowsi. "Many have promised to help us with our overflowing inboxes, but the Mailbox team actually delivered."
AppleInsider was given an advanced look at Mailbox last month and found it was a solid addition to any e-mail workflow. The app's unique interface allows users to turn a Gmail inbox into a type of "to-do" list, where each message can be "snoozed" for later perusal.
For now, Mailbox is an iPhone-only app, which features gestures that allow users to swipe left or right to activate snooze timers and send message strings to the archive folder or a customizable lists folder. E-mails can also be deleted with a longer swipe.
Apple attempted to acquire Dropbox in 2009 with a nine-figure offer and a personal pitch from then-CEO Steve Jobs. When Dropbox declined, Apple pushed ahead with its own iCloud service, which allows users to automatically sync data, but works quite different from Dropbox and lacks a traditional user-accessible file structure.
Comments
Mailbox should have turned them down, stating they wanted to go their own way.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Mailbox should have turned them down, stating they wanted to go their own way.
Why? iCloud is great if you have the money for multiple Apple devices. For everyone else, even for those that use iCloud, Dropbox is great and a must have.
If they bring in iCloud support, I'll give it a try. I'm already entrenched in dropbox so why not.
Hopefully they will make a Mac OSX client. Apple Mail sucks. It doesn't attach documents separately and it doesn't handle disruptions in internet connections very well.
I told you so. Mailbox was setting itself to be acquired not to grow. Quick money.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ash471
Hopefully they will make a Mac OSX client. Apple Mail sucks. It doesn't attach documents separately and it doesn't handle disruptions in internet connections very well.
"sucks"? Really? Are you talking about mail.app?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Mailbox should have turned them down, stating they wanted to go their own way.
Well, that's almost exactly what the said one month ago...
I assume they hit a dead end. They had a long wait list, and the longer the wait list got, the less likely it became for people to buy the app. With less people buying the app, it took longer to add infrastructure to work through the wait list... Almost a, maybe unintended, Ponzi Scheme variation. Maybe getting acquired (even by a party that has that infrastructure in place) was the best/only way to fulfil their liabilities quickly.
Apple and Yahoo, perhaps even Google may rue this day. The combination of Dropbox and Mailbox spells "disruption". Apple should have tried harder to acquire Dropbox way back, and should have not have allowed DropBox to scoop Orchestra so effortlessly. Although Apple and Mailbox may not seem a natural fit, that's really simple enough to change.
As for why Orchestra made this decision, no one here seems to understand that chemistry is a big factor amongst engineers and entrepreneurs. Drew Houston is quite the charmer and clearly maturing as a visionary. Don't forget, he also managed to lure van Rossum, a legend who can work anywhere he wants.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ash471
Hopefully they will make a Mac OSX client. Apple Mail sucks. It doesn't attach documents separately and it doesn't handle disruptions in internet connections very well.
It doesn't make sense at all to make a desktop client for Mailbox, not as it stands. It sounds like you don't know what this app is.
How many armchair critics here even have a Mailbox account?
Quote:
Originally Posted by NasserAE
I told you so. Mailbox was setting itself to be acquired not to grow. Quick money.
BS.
You don't know their intentions. It's easy to guess this about every start-up. Guessing right doesn't count.
In fact, you don't even know whether they got any money. Quick money my ass.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2
Well, that's almost exactly what the said one month ago...
I assume they hit a dead end. They had a long wait list, and the longer the wait list got, the less likely it became for people to buy the app. With less people buying the app, it took longer to add infrastructure to work through the wait list... Almost a, maybe unintended, Ponzi Scheme variation. Maybe getting acquired (even by a party that has that infrastructure in place) was the best/only way to fulfil their liabilities quickly.
It was a free app.
Quote:
Originally Posted by dreyfus2
Well, that's almost exactly what the said one month ago...
I assume they hit a dead end. They had a long wait list, and the longer the wait list got, the less likely it became for people to buy the app. With less people buying the app, it took longer to add infrastructure to work through the wait list... Almost a, maybe unintended, Ponzi Scheme variation. Maybe getting acquired (even by a party that has that infrastructure in place) was the best/only way to fulfil their liabilities quickly.
Sorry but you are taking a wild guess that is ill-founded. No question, Orchestra needs and will continue to need increasing resources to support the growing number of users, despite the rather superbly managed rollout. But, in this industry, the membership size alone guarantees they could have gotten series B funding (or whatever the next round is), particularly since every VC is looking for the next Dropbox and Instagram, both of which managed to support ridiculous numbers of users just fine without or before selling out.
Quote:
Originally Posted by abraxis
Just got Mailbox yesterday and so far I just don't see what the hub-bub is about. It is quick and swipe control is nice but some of this is available in iOS mail. It'd be nice to have integration with dropbox though.
Reasons behind the hub-bub:
- clean design: both aesthetics and interface
- The magic is not so much the quick and swipe but rather list management. That was their original app anyway - Orchestra for management of task lists. They had a lightbulb moment and re-applied the concept to an email client. Brilliant!
Go back and read my history. They didn't have a business model and they have been marketing themselves using this app. They launched a product they knew cannot make money and they didn't even want to capital for proper capacity.. Furthermore, look at their investors and their history. They were trying to do what Instagrams did. This is becoming more and more common. Get few developers and build nice looking iOS app/service that no one wants. Then sit and wait for someone to buy you.
If you couldn't read the writing in the wall then you are probably blind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by NasserAE
Go back and read my history. They didn't have a business model and they have been marketing themselves using this app. They launched a product they knew cannot make money and they didn't even want to capital for proper capacity.. Furthermore, look at their investors and their history. They were trying to do what Instagrams did. This is becoming more and more common. Get few developers and build nice looking iOS app/service that no one wants. Then sit and wait for someone to buy you.
If you couldn't read the writing in the wall then you are probably blind.
BS
Way to prove your argument ¡