Remember the clamor for Gmail invitations back when it launched in early 2004? http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2004/06/63786 (The service remained invite-only until 2007, though invites quickly became less scarce.)
For a while after the Gmail launch, it seemed almost obligatory for new services to launch with long waiting lists and/or scarce invitations.
and 3) it's displayed 4th in the itunes store when you search for mail, and is the first generic mail app displayed in the results. Look at these results:
1) Gmail
2) mail.com
3) Yahoo mail
4) mailbox
5) Windows Live Hotmail
6) Voice Changer Plus
7) Emoji and Unicode Icons
8) Dragon Dictation
9) Ink Cards Personalized
10) A+ Emotion Icons
...
Continues with more completely-unrelated-to-mail results.
If I was searching for a mail client, then mailbox would be it apparently.
It's really just an iOS issue. Apps can't run in the background to check mail and give notifications. So you need to check the mail on the server and send a new mail notification independently of the app.
The weird side-effect of this hack is that you get a notification of a new email, then you open the Mailbox app and it has to go retrieve the new email from the server.
Email snoozing needs some kind of backend, but it doesn't really need access to your GMail account credentials. The backend could just re-send you the email normally.
It does (Local Notifications) but to set those the app would need to check for new email and if it finds any create the notification. AFAIK on iOS it can't check for the email in the background, the app would need to be open (removing the need for the notification).
Comments
Can someone clue me in on this - people are now standing in line for software? The only logical two reasons I can think of:
1) Their backend doesn't scale well enough
2) Artifical scarcity to make people think they are missing out on something
Remember the clamor for Gmail invitations back when it launched in early 2004? http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2004/06/63786 (The service remained invite-only until 2007, though invites quickly became less scarce.)
For a while after the Gmail launch, it seemed almost obligatory for new services to launch with long waiting lists and/or scarce invitations.
Ah this reminds me of Aaron Swartz on "The Gmail Launch" for launching applications.
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/howtolaunch
Their stated reason is:
3) They don't know if their backend scales well.
So their rollout plan is basically to add twice as many accounts each week, then see if it handles the load, then repeat.
and 3) it's displayed 4th in the itunes store when you search for mail, and is the first generic mail app displayed in the results. Look at these results:
1) Gmail 2) mail.com 3) Yahoo mail 4) mailbox 5) Windows Live Hotmail 6) Voice Changer Plus 7) Emoji and Unicode Icons 8) Dragon Dictation 9) Ink Cards Personalized 10) A+ Emotion Icons ... Continues with more completely-unrelated-to-mail results.
If I was searching for a mail client, then mailbox would be it apparently.
> If I was searching for a mail client, then mailbox would be it apparently.
FWIW, the reviews on the AU App Store are very mixed - 82 5-star, 20 4-star, 11 3-star, 2 2-star and 58 1-star.
Many of the 1-star reviews are complaining about how this (free) app has a waiting line.
Shame, because Mailbox is Gmail only I believe.
It's a shame an email client needs a back end.
It's really just an iOS issue. Apps can't run in the background to check mail and give notifications. So you need to check the mail on the server and send a new mail notification independently of the app.
The weird side-effect of this hack is that you get a notification of a new email, then you open the Mailbox app and it has to go retrieve the new email from the server.
Oh! So that is why? I always wondered why that happened with Gmail. It just didn't make any sense to me...
Key features of mailbox - email snoozing, lists etc. would be hard without backend support.
Lists are just IMAP folders.
Email snoozing needs some kind of backend, but it doesn't really need access to your GMail account credentials. The backend could just re-send you the email normally.
Care to explain what those features are?
iOS has an API to schedule a client-side notification without server-side involvement.
It does (Local Notifications) but to set those the app would need to check for new email and if it finds any create the notification. AFAIK on iOS it can't check for the email in the background, the app would need to be open (removing the need for the notification).
3) Avoid getting 1 million new users in a day, which could cause a huge load on tech support.