They've Done It Again: The Death of Mailbox

Faterson · 12-08-2015, 10:03 PM

Yesterday brought the terrible news that yet another corporation decided to kill away an outstanding piece of software they had previously purchased from the original developers: Dropbox is killing Mailbox.

It's the Stanza kill by Amazon dejavu all over again, and Microsoft did the same thing to the Sunrise calendar only a few months ago.

The worrying thing about all this is that Mailbox has resembled Marvin a lot over the last year or so, in terms of lack of meaningful updates. They have both been in a comatose state, basically. Now Mailbox is officially dead – let's hope the end is not quite as near for Marvin.

Given Mailbox's demise and the lack of a meaningul replacement, it would make more sense for someone like Kris to create a high-quality email app. I've just taken another look at Sift, but it's just too elementary. The crucial missing feature in Sift for me is the inability to look at folders inside your email account. Sift also seems pretty difficult to get up and running. And Mailbox's finest feature, as I see it (the ability to drag a message up or down in any unified folder to sort messages in a folder according to their priority), is offered by none of its competitors, so the "market niche" is definitely there, but there appears to be no one currently capable of filling it.

mattcurtis · 12-09-2015, 07:44 AM

I was puzzled as to why this was in the Marvin forum until I reached the end. Nice little rollercoaster there

Faterson · 12-09-2015, 08:38 AM

I'm afraid it's the second paragraph that is the most relevant.

Really, throughout 2015, I was struck by how few updates were made available for both Mailbox and Marvin. By September and October at the latest, Mailbox users started speculating that Dropbox abandoned the software, and yesterday came the awful news that the software was going to be killed mercilessly. And no, they're not going to open-source it; Dropbox is perfectly happy with having flushed $100 million down the toilet only two years ago, and now destroying the hands-down best email software (mobile or desktop!) on this planet, so that its continued use is made impossible. At the time when Amazon did the same thing to Stanza, Stanza, too, was the world's finest EPUB reader. The parallels are frightening indeed.

mattcurtis · 12-09-2015, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faterson

And no, they're not going to open-source it; Dropbox is perfectly happy with having flushed $100 million down the toilet only two years ago, and now destroying the hands-down best email software (mobile or desktop!) on this planet, so that its continued use is made impossible.

Not only that, but they denied several requests by different parties to buy Mailbox from them. Really shoddy business practices IMO, and creates customer distrust.

Canuck_in_Japan · 12-09-2015, 09:03 AM

At first I was upset by this news and then I remembered that I had purchased a copy of Postbox, not Mailbox.

Faterson · 12-09-2015, 09:09 AM

I'm not aware of a Postbox app (that would be a mail app) for iOS... For what it's worth, here is what I posted earlier today below Dropbox's PR article announcing the killing of Mailbox:

https://blogs.dropbox.com/dropbox/20...ent-2400890657

12-08-2015, 10:03 PM	#1
Faterson pokrývač škridiel Posts: 1,525 Karma: 3300000 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Bratislava, Slovakia Device: 3iPad, SamsungNote & Tabs, 2OnyxBoox, Huawei 8″, PocketBook	They've Done It Again: The Death of Mailbox Yesterday brought the terrible news that yet another corporation decided to kill away an outstanding piece of software they had previously purchased from the original developers: Dropbox is killing Mailbox. It's the Stanza kill by Amazon dejavu all over again, and Microsoft did the same thing to the Sunrise calendar only a few months ago. The worrying thing about all this is that Mailbox has resembled Marvin a lot over the last year or so, in terms of lack of meaningful updates. They have both been in a comatose state, basically. Now Mailbox is officially dead – let's hope the end is not quite as near for Marvin. Given Mailbox's demise and the lack of a meaningul replacement, it would make more sense for someone like Kris to create a high-quality email app. I've just taken another look at Sift, but it's just too elementary. The crucial missing feature in Sift for me is the inability to look at folders inside your email account. Sift also seems pretty difficult to get up and running. And Mailbox's finest feature, as I see it (the ability to drag a message up or down in any unified folder to sort messages in a folder according to their priority), is offered by none of its competitors, so the "market niche" is definitely there, but there appears to be no one currently capable of filling it. Last edited by Faterson; 12-08-2015 at 10:07 PM.

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12-09-2015, 07:44 AM	#2
mattcurtis Book Lover, Dev of Hyphen Posts: 59 Karma: 2013886 Join Date: Apr 2013 Device: iPhone (Hyphen)	I was puzzled as to why this was in the Marvin forum until I reached the end. Nice little rollercoaster there

12-09-2015, 08:38 AM	#3
Faterson pokrývač škridiel Posts: 1,525 Karma: 3300000 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Bratislava, Slovakia Device: 3iPad, SamsungNote & Tabs, 2OnyxBoox, Huawei 8″, PocketBook	I'm afraid it's the second paragraph that is the most relevant. Really, throughout 2015, I was struck by how few updates were made available for both Mailbox and Marvin. By September and October at the latest, Mailbox users started speculating that Dropbox abandoned the software, and yesterday came the awful news that the software was going to be killed mercilessly. And no, they're not going to open-source it; Dropbox is perfectly happy with having flushed $100 million down the toilet only two years ago, and now destroying the hands-down best email software (mobile or desktop!) on this planet, so that its continued use is made impossible. At the time when Amazon did the same thing to Stanza, Stanza, too, was the world's finest EPUB reader. The parallels are frightening indeed.

12-09-2015, 09:03 AM	#5
Canuck_in_Japan Wizard Posts: 1,476 Karma: 14328611 Join Date: May 2009 Location: Tokyo, Japan Device: Aura, Aura H2O, Kindle PW3	At first I was upset by this news and then I remembered that I had purchased a copy of Postbox, not Mailbox.

12-09-2015, 09:09 AM	#6
Faterson pokrývač škridiel Posts: 1,525 Karma: 3300000 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Bratislava, Slovakia Device: 3iPad, SamsungNote & Tabs, 2OnyxBoox, Huawei 8″, PocketBook	I'm not aware of a Postbox app (that would be a mail app) for iOS... For what it's worth, here is what I posted earlier today below Dropbox's PR article announcing the killing of Mailbox: https://blogs.dropbox.com/dropbox/20...ent-2400890657