42 comments

  • Jonathan SuhJonathan Suh, 5 years ago

    Dear Santa, Mailbox + Sparrow, please.

    8 points
    • Daniel WinterDaniel Winter, 5 years ago

      these two are owned by google and dropbox, you really think they would do some stuff together? especially since google has started inbox which is basically a better mailbox alternative, it's just missing native desktop apps. and mailbox as gmail only as well..

      0 points
    • Mike MaiMike Mai, 5 years ago

      Best comment ever?

      0 points
  • Jim SilvermanJim Silverman, 5 years ago

    We’ll be taking key features from Carousel back to the place where your photos live—in the Dropbox app. We’ll also be using what we’ve learned from Mailbox to build new ways to communicate and collaborate on Dropbox

    seems like a reasonable path forward. never really understood why Carousel was a separate product.

    7 points
    • Andy StoneAndy Stone, 5 years ago

      I actually love Carousel because of its navigation and simple backup. It has a "time hop" style feature to show off some photos from previous years and the time searching is radical.

      I think the craziest part is that Dropbox bought the name "Carousel" from Kodak and are now shutting it down.

      1 point
    • Robin RaszkaRobin Raszka, 5 years ago

      Perhaps it was trendy back then to have "labs" going on and try things like FB Paper and their labs.

      0 points
    • Siniša ŠašićSiniša Šašić, 5 years ago

      For instance, because there was a need to separate your personal photos from your i.e. work photos. In my case it was separating my PSD files from my family photos, and it worked like a charm. I’m sorry they let it go.

      0 points
  • Ivan Annikov, 5 years ago

    In the past month or so two services that I use daily announced their plans to shut down... I switched from Rdio to Spotify a few weeks ago, and from the UX perspective the Spotify experience so far has been subpar. Now, where do I go for Mailbox replacement? Bummer!

    6 points
  • Vikalp Gupta, 5 years ago

    It's sad to see nice products like Mailbox, Sparrow go down the rabbit hole. Related Article: https://medium.com/swlh/the-unreliable-startup-69461f629383#.dj5brob7t

    Have heard in Designer News that Pixate is on the same road.

    5 points
    • Ruben BosRuben Bos, 5 years ago

      Sadly these announcements force us to be highly critical in using new digital services. Especially if you have to rely on them. It doesn't only apply to small start-ups. Companies like Adobe, Facebook and now also Dropbox have a record in launching new products with huge fanfare, to just kill them only a few moments later.

      1 point
    • Daniel WinterDaniel Winter, 5 years ago

      sadly both pixate and sparrow were acquired by google only to let them fall afterwards.

      learn: never sell your comp to google.

      0 points
      • Vikalp Gupta, 5 years ago

        It isn't like that. There are examples like, youtube, android, photos (picassa) and many more which are there.

        Also, received a newsletter announcing Pixate Studio 2.0!

        0 points
  • Quintin Carlson, 5 years ago

    So, when Mailbox first launched, the Orchestra team cited attempts to minimize email and streamline the work that causes so much email had failed. So they created a new email tool. From the Orchestra team lead, Gentry: "we believe Mailbox offers a simpler and more direct approach to our mission of solving the problem of using email as a to-do list."

    Now, Dropbox is citing that "we realized there’s only so much an email app can do to fundamentally fix email."

    My hunch is that when (not if) Paper and their other collaboration attempts fail to catch on, Dropbox will re-release an email client. I bet we'll just cycle between attempts to eliminate email and better manage email.

    Also, don't say Dropbox doesn't have the resources to keep a simple email client working. With thousands of employees and seemingly endless funding, it's entirely possible.

    It's another sign Dropbox has no clue where they're going.

    3 points
    • Nick LooijmansNick Looijmans, 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago )

      They won't. Funding is never endless, and you don't just throw away money—not even in Silicon Valley. Every non-Dropbox app at Dropbox has one goal: get more paid Dropbox subscribers. If an app fails to do that, they dump it. (source: ex-Dropbox employee)

      I see it as a lack of vision in the past, and suspect that Dropbox will be focussing on applications that are more closely tied in with their main service. Dropbox is all about collaborating. Paper ties in nicely with that.

      0 points
      • Quintin Carlson, 5 years ago

        Sure, Nick, but then how did they ever expect Mailbox to encourage paid Dropbox subscribers? Maybe it was just an attempt to acquihire a team, which is possible...

        I get how Paper makes more sense than Mailbox, but buying services people love and stifling and ultimately sunsetting them doesn't build them any goodwill.

        0 points
  • Joe Blau, 5 years ago

    I've tried a few other mail clients over the past few days and nothing has been quite on par with Mailbox. I wonder what Dropbox's strategy is going forward; I know from personal experience that the company has a brilliant team, but from the outside; it seems like they are making a bunch of random moves.

    2 points
    • Onur SentureOnur Senture, 5 years ago

      I find using Dropbox itself is also risky. From the now on I won't use any side product that they published (like Paper) or will publish... Meh.

      0 points
  • Zuno Young, 5 years ago

    glad that I made a switch to Google photos from Carousel months ago... as for Mailbox, it's popular because it supports email clients other than gmail? I mainly use gmail so inbox is a pretty neat

    1 point
    • Dan SherrattDan Sherratt, 5 years ago

      Inbox is incredible, but doesn't support Gmail business accounts

      0 points
      • John GomezJohn Gomez, 5 years ago

        That's not true, afaik. I'm using inbox via business account. You have to be friends with the email admin, tell him/her to tick the box where they allow it. :)

        0 points
  • Harper Lieblich, 5 years ago

    Mailbox has been my primary email client on both iOS and Mac since they beta started so I'm sad to see this happen. But I can appreciate the situation that Dropbox is in and I'm glad they came out and said it concretely instead of letting the product rot with no updates.

    1 point
  • Moeed MohammadMoeed Mohammad, 5 years ago

    "How dare you shut down the service that I was paying nothing for, you bastards?!"

    1 point
    • John PJohn P, 5 years ago

      What about people who paid for Dropbox accounts?

      1 point
      • Moeed MohammadMoeed Mohammad, 5 years ago

        Paying for Dropbox isn't the same as paying for Mailbox.

        2 points
        • Todd SielingTodd Sieling, 5 years ago

          Where did Dropbox put a price on Mailbox?

          0 points
        • John PJohn P, 5 years ago

          Why do we keep making excuses for these startup darlings?

          Dropbox accounts funded some of the mailbox purchase.

          0 points
          • Moeed MohammadMoeed Mohammad, 5 years ago

            Not directly. I'm not making excuses. You're using a free service, and shouldn't complain if it gets taken away from you.

            0 points
    • Joe Blau, 5 years ago

      I would pay for both the desktop and iOS client separately if someone resurrected it.

      3 points
    • Onur SentureOnur Senture, 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago )

      Probably most of Mailbox users would pay if they switch to premium business model. It's non-sense.

      0 points
  • John KarlssonJohn Karlsson, 5 years ago

    Here we go again

    1 point
  • Leszek PietrzakLeszek Pietrzak, 5 years ago

    Initially I panicked as fuck. I counted to 10, then read about some alternatives and started using Spark. Issue resolved.

    0 points
  • Onur SentureOnur Senture, 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago )

    I don't want to switch back to default Mail app for just cross platform advantages. Please, please someone say "Calm down. We are working on cross platform, zero-inbox focused mail app that will have reasonable amount of bug when we release". Please. :(

    0 points
  • Giulio MichelonGiulio Michelon, 5 years ago

    Sad.

    0 points
  • Michael Schofield, 5 years ago

    I really enjoyed Mailbox, but I'm not surprised. Although parts of the UI were better, I at some point stopped using them in favor of Google Inbox. I was going back and forth, but once Inbox let me swipe right to delete, the oomph of Mailbox was lost.

    0 points
  • Michal CsanakyMichal Csanaky, 5 years ago

    Oh no! Two more me-too-apps are dead! Another company trying to regain their focus. OMG what a disaster! lol

    I just don't understand why not open-sourcing it to the community?

    0 points
  • Rich TaborRich Tabor, 5 years ago

    I kinda thought this would be happening. Monetizing that is tough - plus "fixing email" is something that sounds appealing, but really isn't something that could happen. Eliminating email is the real goal here.

    0 points
    • John PJohn P, 5 years ago (edited 5 years ago )

      Monetizing that is tough

      Monetizing what? they already have a successful paid for product, just make it Dropbox pro account holders only.

      Don't see why we have to struggle to find excuses for SV darlings when they screw us over.

      1 point