A number of you have asked me what I think of the new, much hyped Mailbox iOS app.
OK, so first off, what is Mailbox? Essentially it is a free service that transforms your inbox into a to do list. Confused? I was too initially, so I suggest you taker a look at the video below, which helps explain what Mailbox hopes to achieve.
OK, so now you know what Mailbox is, what do I think of it?
Well, there's no doubt that it is interesting. As we move from desktops and notebooks and onto mobile devices, how we handle—or should that be triage?—email has changed, and I think that Mailbox has some interesting ideas. The idea of looking at an email as a task is certainly compelling to someone like me who ends up feeling swamped every time I look at my inbox.
But I also have concerns about Mailbox.
- It's a free service, so who's picking up the bills, and for how long?
- I don't like the way that Mailbox has been rolled out. The queuing system used introduces a huge delay between downloading the app and actually being able to use it. People seem to be either getting frustrated by how far back in the queue they are finding themselves, feel they are being hooked in by a cheap "scarcity" marketing trick,or are deleting the app before even taking it for a spin.
- It's a middleware service between me and my Gmail account. This not only makes troubleshooting problems difficult, but it also means that if Google changes something at their end, it could break Mailbox.
- It's iOS only at present, so not so useful for anyone in a mixed platform environment.
- It's also Gmail only at present, which also limits appeal.
- Having a third party with access to your inbox data increase the attack surface present to hackers and other people wanting access to my stuff.
Personally, I'm holding off from using Mailbox for now. I like the idea of redefining how I handle my email, but I need to be sure that the Mailbox way is better, and I also need it to be a far more cross-platform, provider-independent solution than it is currently.
