Mailbox Is Joining Dropbox

GOD DAMNIT NOT AGAIN!<p>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.<p>Good luck to everyone on the mailbox team, I love your product, please don't kill it.

Beyond all of the complicated integration/feature scenarios people are proposing, what shouldn't be forgotten is the fact that <i>email is the primary way most people send and receive files</i>. Combine that with mobile fast becoming the primary computing device for most people, and you have an extremely sensible acquisition.

Wait. Did we just see a company who still has a waiting list get acquired? Well done.

I 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.<p>Then I read about stuff like this.

A 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.

"This means not only continuing to scale the service, but also including support for more email providers and mobile devices."<p>Please, <i>please</i> 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.

For everyone thinking Mailbox is getting Sparrowfied, there's good news:<p><i>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><p>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.

This is a <i>very</i> clever move by Dropbox.

I 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.

&#62; Not sure if the acquisition makes strategic sense for Dropbox<p>I do - Dropbox isn't and doesn't want to be just a dumb, syncable file store. First your photos, now your email.

It'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.

I hope this means that an Android app will be released too. Not that the gmail app is bad.

I'm glad it's not Google, Apple or Microsoft.<p>Here's to a stronger Dropbox and a long-life for Mailbox!

"The product needs to grow fast, and we believe that joining Dropbox is the best way to make that happen. "<p>Why not do a funding round?

Regardless 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.<p>I hope mailbox having the right place to continue growing as a good product.<p>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 :)

So... Google got Sparrow, Dropbox got Mailbox...<p>Now that leaves Apple and MS...<p>I have one hell of a startup app idea. Anybody out there good with objective-c?

Congrats Gentry and team!! If you'd like Gmail + Dropbox attachment management now, just use Attachments.me iPhone app <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attachments.me-for-gmail-email/id446390783?mt=8" rel="nofollow">https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/attachments.me-for-gmail-ema...</a>

Google killed sparrow because Gmail is better than sparrow Google din't kill YouTube because YouTube is better than Google videos. Facebook dint kill instagram.<p>So,I think Dropbox has just acquire mailbox not for killing it but to enter a different domain.

Not 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.

Getting 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.

Mailbox, the app I've yet to use gets acquired.<p>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 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Cialdini</a>)...but for me personally its backfired. If Dropbox's resources can help here, I'm all for it. Good luck.<p>Also, a note to mailbox web designer, try adding more contrast to your text so I can actually read it.

Acquired 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).

Android 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<p>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.<p>(being an Android fan, I have a self-interest in getting companies to release Android apps faster than they currently do)

This 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.

I 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.<p>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.

For those who are interested in an alternative service check out Right Inbox. Lets you schedule emails in Gmail, allows tracking emails and setting reminders. <a href="http://www.rightinbox.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.rightinbox.com/</a>

I 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?

Am 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.<p>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.<p>I'm curious if any of you are in a similar situation but have had a better experience.

How can this ever be a good fit? MailBoxApp is a radical take on email while DropBox is gunning for the main stream.

Off topic: messages "from the team" on the mailbox website looks like a pre-orchestrated marketing campaign :)

So, do I get to jump the queue now?

Acquihire? Not acquihire? Can't decide, this blog post is decidedly too party spirited.

What's going to happen to Orchestra? (The same company is behind Mailbox)

Cloud storage provider wants to do more than cloud storage. WARNING.

what'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 <i>gasp</i> deadpooled?

Congratulations guys!

Great news...

How was Mailbox profitable?

They sell themselves really quick.

Sometimes 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.