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They didn't have a recurring revenue model.

• ChuckMcM 14y ago
  This. Like everyone else I think the App Store lost a great app today. However, I also couldn't figure out how Sparrow would be able to grow on $10 one time purchases. Having been a big fan of Eudora back when it was sekrit hacker group at Qualcomm (well not so sekrit but certainly not part of Qualcomm's core business) I talked with their VP of product at some conference and he basically lamented that once you sold it to someone you were done. They didn't like selling bug fixes as 'upgrades' (that was just a paid support model) and once you had a working client there wasn't much reason to upgrade. The 'free' ad-supported version had a better revenue future than the purchased one. By the same token these guys have to eat right? So its not like they can do the open source route. They really need to be part of a bigger stable of things in order to make it a business. I did think it would be a good acquisition for Apple as the front end for their gmail killer.
  • cpeterso 14y ago
    > I also couldn't figure out how Sparrow would be able to grow on $10 one time purchases. Can a small company survive on one-time purchases of desktop applications? If Sparrow charged $100, they might have more time to scale up their customers, but they would have fewer customers. Has Y Combinator invested in startups whose primary product was a desktop application?