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Mailbox Is Joining Dropbox
- vtail 14y agoNot sure if the acquisition makes strategic sense for Dropbox, but at least I have some confidence that Mailbox wouldn't simply disappear: Dropbox core product has a freemium model, and they are very successful company.
- defrndr 14y agoIt makes sense if they want to compete with Gmail by integrating dropbox and mailbox; providing an alternative to Google Drive.
- tomschlick 14y agoGOD DAMNIT NOT AGAIN! I really do hope that they progress on the path they started instead of just acquiring mailbox for the talent. I know they said that they would but thats what we heard about Sparrow when they were bought by Google and the results sucked. Good luck to everyone on the mailbox team, I love your product, please don't kill it.
- smalter 14y agoNo, they were pretty up front that Sparrow was a talent acquisition. They said that the product would continue to exist but they weren't going to update it and they were going to work on new projects at Google.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- lttlrck 14y agoTalent acquired and squandered. Google has no decent mail app on iOS.
- myko 14y agoPretty subjective. I find Gmail the most pleasant mail app to use on my iPad.
- encoderer 14y agoAgreed. I dumped the native mail client.
- larrywright 14y agoI like it, but its treatment of multiple mail accounts is crappy compared to sparrow (no unified inbox).
- resu_nimda 14y agoThe Gmail app is slick, but extremely slow for me (on iPhone 5), as in "it's really annoying every time I use this app but I've moved away from native Mail and inertia is a hell of a thing." Other people I've talked to have had similar experiences. I'm excited to try Mailbox.
- meerita 14y agoNo unified inbox, etc.
- hnriot 14y agoyou can't be serious, it's the beginnings of something good, but it has all kinds of problems, it fails to load email often (reporting "something has gone wrong.."), it routinely doesn't clear the red read indicator, it's laggy and sluggish. I am sure Google will make it kickass in the fullness of time, but for now, that's not what gmail/iOS is.
- bmle 14y agoUnread indicator is always wrong, especially when you use multiple devices. Seems very I characteristic of google. It's been that way since they released the app.
- jamiequint 14y agoDid you not RTFA? > " To be clear, Mailbox is not going away. The product needs to grow fast, and we believe that joining Dropbox is the best way to make that happen. Plus, imagine what cool things you could do if your Mailbox was connected to your Dropbox…"
- tomschlick 14y agoI did read the article. However we have heard things like that before so I'm a bit wary that 6 months down the line DB isn't going to reconsider and kill the mailbox platform.
- teej 14y agoTo be frank, it's really hard to believe that. They're being acquired, it isn't up to them anymore what happens to Mailbox. They signed the keys away to Drew Houston and the management team at Dropbox. Mailbox dies the moment Drew decides to kill it.
- dhouston 14y agoit's not going anywhere :) (actually, come work on it: https://www.dropbox.com/jobs https://www.dropbox.com/jobs :))
- ocirion 14y agoWhat happens when Dropbox is acquired?
- jamiequint 14y agoDropbox is not getting acquired at this point ($5B+ val), they will go public.
- usmanity 14y agoman, I wish you guys were looking for a front-end developer! :D
- 14y ago
- bonzoesc 14y agoSparrow did try some Dropbox integration (and it worked pretty reasonably), so I suspect Dropbox wants to really nail that this time around.
- tlrobinson 14y agoI am shocked, SHOCKED, to find this as the top comment on Hacker News. /s
- swalsh 14y agoI never even got to try it! I've been waiting in line for a week.
- heliodor 14y agoI haven't tried the app (no iPhone). Can someone explain to me why the Mailbox app is so great? From the intro video, I see a typical email app with a couple of extra gestures thrown in. Like Sparrow, it seems it's more marketing and hype than a radical upgrade to the email experience.
- _pius 14y agoThis is a very clever move by Dropbox.
- antr 14y agoIndeed. My outsider view: they are going to build a full-fledged productivity suite. They have the storage, versioning, you can view files/docs and now you have an email client. The "obvious" next move would be getting into the online document editing space. But then, this is me just speculating from the sidelines.
- PanMan 14y agowhy? do you see huge overlap between file syncing/storage and mobile email?
- damoncali 14y agoI don't know about "very clever", but if you look at Dropbox as moving towards an iCloud-like service where its more than just data, it make sense. But it sounds a lot like a talent acquisition that comes with a nice mail app that probably has some similar technical challenges to the things Dropbox already does well. Seems like a good way to kickstart a Dropbox email platform.
- _pius 14y agoIf you look at their foray into photos and the way they talk about their service now, Dropbox is becoming a lifestyle brand focused on your personal data. Meanwhile, the mobile e-mail client that the Mailbox team built is so cool that it convinced about a million people to let Mailbox store a full copy of their e-mail archive ... in 10 weeks. That kind of strategic value means it's smart for them to swoop the product and team up RIGHT NOW, even if they had to pay a premium to do it.
- pazimzadeh 14y agoI think that Dropbox wants to be the company on the internet where your stuff "is" and email is probably part of that.
- 14y ago
- gilrain 14y agoA possible first step towards matching the broad ecosystem of their new chief competitors, Google Drive and Microsoft Skydrive. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them acquire an office app suite next.
- ishansharma 14y agoAre there any viable competitors to Google Docs err Drive and MS Office? Office is the feature powerhouse and Drive is lean and fast service, I haven't seen anything that can be acquired around!
- jmduke 14y agoI don't find Drive to be particularly lean/fast -- it's been easier for me and my peers to work on content/formatting on Word than email it; Drive's lack of features is certainly not a proxy for being lightweight. Drive's killer feature, though, is collaboration.
- mkr-hn 14y agoThere's Zoho, but it's big enough to where it probably won't accept an acquisition.
- mikecarlucci 14y agoThere are so many options once Dropbox can theoritcally be accessed through an inbox interface... Mailbox could be a first step to competing with Messages/gChat. Instead of rolling out their own email, Dropbox can be another type of account Mailbox works with to send pictures, videos, files over data rather than texting or emailing. An odd feature to roll out without acquiring a popular product, but making Dropbox the goto rather than the link attached to something else.
- MatthewPhillips 14y agoWhy should Dropbox have a message client (or email client). I fail to see how they are connected. I feel the same about Twitter launching a music service. There used to be the joke that every software expands until it can read mail. Nowadays I think we need a new saying. Every software company expands until... it has rebuilt every other software product (not as catchy).
- ishansharma 14y agoFor everyone thinking Mailbox is getting Sparrowfied, there's good news: To be clear, Mailbox is not going away. The product needs to grow fast, and we believe that joining Dropbox is the best way to make that happen. Plus, imagine what cool things you could do if your Mailbox was connected to your Dropbox. I'm so glad that Mailbox is going to stay alive. It has been just one month since I removed Sparrow and started using Mailbox mostly.
- niggler 14y ago"The product needs to grow fast, and we believe that joining Dropbox is the best way to make that happen. " Why not do a funding round?
- anthemcg 14y agoSeems like Dropbox is ideally suited to do it from a financial and a technology stand-point.
- arindone 14y agoWell look at the alternatives: (1) join dropbox, probably for a pretty penny with stock options that will probably look very nice when Dropbox goes public -- fuel further growth and integration with Dropbox with even more significant resources at your disposal (including HIRING really good engineers a la "come work for Dropbox!") (2) stay as a high-risk start-up with no revenue, no tested plans of monetization with huge problems of scale (due to its rapid growth) and create a funding round which liquidates your ownership stake significantly, puts you @ the mercy of some risk averse VC's and limits your exit options (depending upon valuation) I love the product, but I have to admit this (1) would be my choice as well
- aaronbrethorst 14y agoThey did in November 2011. $5 million round: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/orchestra http://www.crunchbase.com/company/orchestra
- joncooper 14y agoAs opposed to a funding round, this approach is advantageous: Financially -- - Cash out the existing (presumably closely-held) equity holders with 100% of deal proceeds. "Existentially" -- Reduce execution risk by getting the team access to: - Existing battle-tested deployment infrastructure (& devops) - Existing pool of engineers that can be assigned to the project, and who are familiar with the infrastructure - HR, facilities, logistics, support, etc...
- tokyonoise 14y agoFor those who are interested in an alternative service check out Right Inbox. Lets you schedule emails in Gmail, allows tracking emails and setting reminders. http://www.rightinbox.com/ http://www.rightinbox.com/
- revelation 14y agoAcquihire? Not acquihire? Can't decide, this blog post is decidedly too party spirited.
- cleverjake 14y agonot acquirehire. pretty clear >>To be clear, Mailbox is not going away. The product needs to grow fast, and we believe that joining Dropbox is the best way to make that happen. Plus, imagine what cool things you could do if your Mailbox was connected to your Dropbox.
- bluthru 14y agoI love the promise of the internet. Nimble upstarts competing on a level playing field with huge corporations. A decentralized market without physical agency. More owners and more competition. Then I read about stuff like this.
- mintplant 14y agoWell, Dropbox itself is competing "on a level playing field with huge corporations". See: competition from Google Drive, Apple iCloud, Microsoft SkyDrive, and so on. All companies with comparatively huge amounts of resources.
- FuzzyDunlop 14y agoAfter that forum post where the user claimed Dropbox had leaked their email to spammers, I have severe reservations about giving them the actual credentials to my email account, whether or not the allegations were correct.
- jmedwards 14y ago> Not sure if the acquisition makes strategic sense for Dropbox I do - Dropbox isn't and doesn't want to be just a dumb, syncable file store. First your photos, now your email.
- defrndr 14y agoI hope this means that an Android app will be released too. Not that the gmail app is bad.
- damoncali 14y agoWait. Did we just see a company who still has a waiting list get acquired? Well done.
- wiredfool 14y agoThat's one way to jump the queue...
- aroman 14y agoYeah I signed on at about 900k in front of me in the queue... now that company has been acquired and I've STILL got 180k people in front of me. Good lord.
- sbarre 14y agoHaha I was thinking the same thing.. I had 700k when I got in line, still have 375k ahead.. Hopefully the acquisition by Dropbox speeds up the line, maybe?
- rscale 14y agoI had to wait about a week to use it. I used it once, realized it turns my inbox into a todo app, and uninstalled it.
- sbarre 14y agoArgh, I hope I'm not waiting in line for the same experience.. :-) I'm still curious to see if I like it (I am an inbox-zero person), so I'll stick it out.. But yeah, I've been in line for 3 weeks now or so, I think...
- vxNsr 14y agoyeah, I actually checked to see if they still had a queue, they do, pretty insane.. slighly relevant onion: http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-social-media-startup-launches-shuts-down-withi,31557/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-social-media-startup-la...
- 27182818284 14y agoAndroid fans take note of how their app is iPhone only at the moment. This is important. In every flamewar people argue that Android is the same essentially as iPhone or better, but there are two HUGE gaps 1. iOS gets new apps faster. In this case, Mailbox is iOS 2. Accessories are harder to find for the large gamut of Android-running devices. (being an Android fan, I have a self-interest in getting companies to release Android apps faster than they currently do)
- admiralpumpkin 14y agoI'm glad it's not Google, Apple or Microsoft. Here's to a stronger Dropbox and a long-life for Mailbox!
- dguido 14y agoI feel like any communications app, especially e-mail related, that's trying to label itself as "modern" needs to include some support for crypto as a requirement. I hope the Dropbox people push for things like that from Mailbox, given their past security problems.
- benaiah 14y ago"This means not only continuing to scale the service, but also including support for more email providers and mobile devices." Please, please let this mean that they plan on supporting EAS. Migrating to Google Apps for Business in not an option for me, and everyone and his brother is building fancy IMAP-only email clients, while I'm stuck with the default mail client on my iPhone. I love Mailbox's interface, but I barely get a chance to use it, as my primary email address that 99% of my email goes through is on Outlook.com-hosted email.
- X-Istence 14y agoThe biggest problem with Exchange Active Sync is that to implement it you have to pay a licensing fee to Microsoft. For a lot of smaller developers that simply isn't an option, especially for something they are giving away for free or for a very low price. Also, EAS is proprietary, whereas IMAP is open. Outlook.com should simply add IMAP support.
- mattl 14y agoCheck out Davmail -- http://davmail.sourceforge.net/ http://davmail.sourceforge.net/ -- turns Exchange into standards.
- gislifb 14y agoSecond that, although I never got anything but the mail to work (no contacts, cal, tasks) and since evolution is a piece of crap (at least the version that comes with FC 18) I had to use thunderbird which doesn't have cal. But it's still worth it!
- arrowgunz 14y agoCongratulations guys!
- changdizzle 14y agowhat's going to happen to orchestra? i actually use it all the time, almost as much as mailbox -- is this going over to dropbox or will it be gasp deadpooled?
- so898 14y agoThey sell themselves really quick.
- soemarko 14y agoSo, do I get to jump the queue now?
- jonpaul 14y agoWhat's going to happen to Orchestra? (The same company is behind Mailbox)
- abraininavat 14y agoSometimes I wish companies would just focus on what they do well instead of trying to expand forever, wedging themselves into every niche of your life and watering down the utility of their offerings.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- cpursley 14y agoSo... Google got Sparrow, Dropbox got Mailbox... Now that leaves Apple and MS... I have one hell of a startup app idea. Anybody out there good with objective-c?
- k-mcgrady 14y agoAcquired before I've even got my invite! :) Still another 276,000 people in front of me. I really hope Dropbox keeps it around (and from the comments that seems to be the case).
- goronbjorn 14y agoBeyond all of the complicated integration/feature scenarios people are proposing, what shouldn't be forgotten is the fact that email is the primary way most people send and receive files. Combine that with mobile fast becoming the primary computing device for most people, and you have an extremely sensible acquisition.
- kunle 14y agoWell said. Pretty easy way for all files you receive to immediately be in your Dropbox, and for Dropbox to either a. launch an email service that runs off the space in your dropbox, or b. automatically create dropbox folders shared between all recipients of an attachment and automatically set permissions.
- rhizome 14y agoStep 0: get all of these people to use Dropbox as their email client
- Goopplesoft 14y agoI', #538,902 on this waiting list so its working.
- dotmanish 14y agoWell noted. If you try attaching any file above 30 MB in GMail, it prompts you to send it "via Google Drive" instead, and automatically uploads it there.
- troymc 14y agoIndeed, but of course email typically has a limit on the size of the file you can attach (for good reason). In Outlook.com (was Hotmail), you can send a large file by sending a link to a file in SkyDrive. You don't have to upload the file to SkyDrive first; it's just an extension to the "attach file" feature within Outlook.com. GMail has a similar integration with GDrive.
- ianstormtaylor 14y ago
- dilipray 14y agoGoogle killed sparrow because Gmail is better than sparrow Google din't kill YouTube because YouTube is better than Google videos. Facebook dint kill instagram. So,I think Dropbox has just acquire mailbox not for killing it but to enter a different domain.
- hawkharris 14y agoI just read over the features offered by Mailbox, and I don't see anything that I'm not already getting from using Gmail with the Boomerang plugin. Can anyone who is using Mailbox explain its unique benefits?
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- hawkharris 14y agoI was genuinely asking for someone in the community to explain what makes the app unique. I wish that whoever down voted this would have explained his reasoning.
- vicky_rockstar 14y agoGreat news...
- nicholassmith 14y agoGetting a monopoly on the 'box'. Actually, I'd say a startup being acquired by a small company like Dropbox is a better outcome than a startup being consumed into the monolithic companies like Apple or Google.
- weeklyplaycheck 14y agoIt's hilariously easy to skip the line and gain access to the "velvet room" as it is described in this application's plist file. You can even do this entirely on a non-jailbroken device. Tokenless system based entirely on local authentication.
- weeklyplaycheck 14y agoCheckout the preferences plist under the application folder on your local device.
- nXqd 14y agoRegardless the reasons they sell themselves. But I still think it's a good idea to join Dropbox since they are really open and they love to create good product instead of trying to get money. I hope mailbox having the right place to continue growing as a good product. Furthermore: I love the current startup markets, so many awesome products. But still there are bunch of craps which have new and fancy interfaces but nothing inside. Rather joining the big and create big thing together :)
- Wonderdonkey 14y agoAm I the only one who thinks Dropbox isn't very good? I only seem to see positive comments, and that just doesn't make sense to me. I'm a premium Dropbox user with multiple terabytes of storage. (We deal with large files that have to be shared among many users widely dispersed.) I've been using it for a while now. When dealing with large files, it's slow, clunky, and restrictive. You have to use the desktop client to upload files of any appreciable size, and then you get zero feedback on the file's progress. I just don't see how $3,500 a year for that is better than the cost of an old-school FTP server. I'm curious if any of you are in a similar situation but have had a better experience.
- almost 14y agoIt's not good for your use case apparently. Your use case isn't the same as most people's use case. Simple :)
- Wonderdonkey 14y agoYeah, I was just kind of curious to hear what other premium users were experiencing. I assume anyone who goes premium has a need like mine. Oh well. Lesson learned: Don't talk smack about a Y Combinator company on Y Combinator. The proprietors have a magical downvote button.
- josephjrobison 14y agoThis is perfect, otherwise I would have to wait in line for another three months to get the app. I don't care who owns it if I can't even use the app.
- meerita 14y agoI use Mailbox. I like it to do the normal, read/archive thingy fast. But for serious mailing, Sparrow still wins. Aside this, it was clearly normal to see them acquired by other grande company. Mailbox was free. No business model. Their own business model surely was acquisition. Did you thought they were last to the point of an IPO or charging for their service? Me not.
- fotoblur 14y agoMailbox, the app I've yet to use gets acquired. How can an app like Mailbox make you mad? Here is how: I'm still waiting in the queue for over a month now to even try the app. Scarcity is the mental mind hack used to increase demand (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini)...but for me personally its backfired. If Dropbox's resources can help here, I'm all for it. Good luck. Also, a note to mailbox web designer, try adding more contrast to your text so I can actually read it.
- kevingibbon 14y agoCongrats Gentry and team!! If you'd like Gmail + Dropbox attachment management now, just use Attachments.me iPhone app https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attachments.me-for-gmail-email/id446390783?mt=8 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attachments.me-for-gmail-ema...
- baby 14y agoHow was Mailbox profitable?
- yesimahuman 14y agoSince when did that matter? ;)
- baby 14y agoI was just wondering. They have a well made product, nice website, but the app is free. I can see how it would be a good thing between Dropbox's legs but how could it be profitable on its own?
- jamin 14y agoCloud storage provider wants to do more than cloud storage. WARNING.
- avaku 14y agoOff topic: messages "from the team" on the mailbox website looks like a pre-orchestrated marketing campaign :)
- teyc 14y agoHow can this ever be a good fit? MailBoxApp is a radical take on email while DropBox is gunning for the main stream.