I don't think anyone is annoyed they were acquired. I'm annoyed that I paid for their Mac and iOS apps and now development is discontinued. I also find it shady that they had a highly publicised half price sale last weekend just before they shut down development. This isn't a service we pay for month-to-month. It's something we paid a higher than average price for (based on App Store prices) and expected continued development. It sets a very bad precedent.
> It's something we paid a higher than average price for (based on App Store prices) and expected continued development.
I think the lesson here is that you buy a thing as it is today, not for how it could be in the future. If you are not happy with a thing as it is, do not buy it.
That's true but the developers did say they were working on bringing some features to the app (push notifications for example). I think it's easy for me and you to understand that they were acquired for their talent but to ordinary people it just looks like they've bought something, were promised updates, and they weren't delivered. That reflects badly on all developers and it's something that's been happening a lot in the last few years. Businesses need their customers to trust them and acquihires are making the entire community look bad.
I think it's easy for me and you to understand that they were acquired for their talent but to ordinary people it just looks like they've bought something, were promised updates, and they weren't delivered. That reflects badly on all developers and it's something that's been happening a lot in the last few years. Businesses need their customers to trust them and acquihires are making the entire community look bad.
Acquihiring is irrelevant. If anything, what's making the app developer community look bad are developers making promises they don't or can't keep.
It's simple: if you promise something, deliver it.
Know why Apple doesn't pre-announce features? Because announcements are promises, and nothing can be promised until it's done. Heck, even being as careful as they are, they've announced features that never shipped. At my company, we're extremely wary of pre-announcing anything when we interact with our users and, when we do, we go to lengths to emphasize that we can't promise anything until it ships.
To be clear, I'm not accusing Sparrow's team of willfully misleading, lying, or misrepresenting anything. I'm certain they were confident their promises were good. Nor do I fault their decision to join Google; I'd probably do the same given the right compensation and opportunities. This is just a great example of why promising features is risky and should be avoided – you never know what the future will bring.
I think all this is fair, actually. I was similarly peeved last week when Mozilla pulled the plug on Thunderbird. But the ire there, and yours, is aimed at the developers who killed it. And that sounds correct.
What I find weird are the people who thing that somehow Google's behavior (hiring talented iOS developers with huge hiring bonuses -- the horror) is in bad faith, or that (per the OP) Apple should be responsible for "fixing" it.
