Dropbox Shuts Down Mailbox
In 2013, we acquired Mailbox because we believed in the way it was making mobile email better. In 2014, we launched Carousel to create a new way to experience and share photos. With both, we aspired to extend the simplicity of Dropbox to other parts of our users’ lives.
Building new products is about learning as much as it’s about making. It’s also about tough choices. Over the past few months, we’ve increased our team’s focus on collaboration and simplifying the way people work together. In light of that, we’ve made the difficult decision to shut down Carousel and Mailbox.
I see a lot of people saying that apps die when they get acquired. Whilst this is technically true, it’s shortsighted reasoning. Mailbox had no guarantee of surviving on its own, it was a free app based on other companies’ email services with no revenue model. Mailbox could have died even sooner if Dropbox hadn’t bought them. I don’t know this for sure, it’s a possibility, but Mailbox might have decided to be acquired only because they knew the outlook for sustainability was bleak.
By the way, Eddy Cue’s son worked on Mailbox. Is he now working for one of Apple’s largest iCloud competitors?