On one hand, I think this could be great for Gmail and even the wider world of email by bringing Sparrow's great UI/UX work to a bigger audience and more platforms and experiences. Gmail's engineers and back-end technology + Sparrow's UI/UX team seems like a match made in heaven.
On the other hand, this is the end of the fantastic iPhone and Mac apps. Eventually bugs or incompatibilities with new OSes will end of life them, and Google does not have a good track record of making good native experiences for any platform other than Android. I hope that doesn't continue.
The worst thing for me would be if Google took this talent and only improved the Web experience, while also no longer delivering a good iOS experience. Good should take the Sparrow iOS app and make it into the official Gmail app for the platform. They should then take parts of it for the official Android app. After that, the Mac Sparrow app should become the basis for future Mac and Windows Gmail apps.
On one hand, I think this could be great for Gmail and even the wider world of email by bringing Sparrow's great UI/UX work to a bigger audience and more platforms and experiences. Gmail's engineers and back-end technology + Sparrow's UI/UX team seems like a match made in heaven.
On the other hand, this is the end of the fantastic iPhone and Mac apps. Eventually bugs or incompatibilities with new OSes will end of life them, and Google does not have a good track record of making good native experiences for any platform other than Android. I hope that doesn't continue.
The worst thing for me would be if Google took this talent and only improved the Web experience, while also no longer delivering a good iOS experience. Good should take the Sparrow iOS app and make it into the official Gmail app for the platform. They should then take parts of it for the official Android app. After that, the Mac Sparrow app should become the basis for future Mac and Windows Gmail apps.