Google's iOS Gmail App Pulled 90
olsmeister writes "Google removed their new GMail app from the App Store due to a programming error that caused an error message related to the aps-environment entitlement string when the app was started and also caused the notifications not to function correctly. They are working to get the app fixed and are going to have the new one ready soon."
Re:Not the worst problem... (Score:2, Interesting)
I can't get into details, but I'm relatively familiar with Google's internal culture and the people they hire. And my general conclusion is that Google is absolutely the new Microsoft. Google's loaded with smart, talented, motivated people, but upper management generally lacks taste. By and large they're engineers and scientists without any real creative sensibility or vision. (And they don't appear to be good at monetizing products, with one Big Exception, and a couple of very small ones.)
Within five seconds of seeing the app the first time I thought "it's 50/50 whether this either lacks multiple account support, or has just made it non-obvious," because both were moves they'd absolutely make. Taking Marissa Mayer off of UI was something they should have done many years ago, but they don't seem to have done anything much better since then, sadly.
The primary reason they launched this app--the primary reason they even got into the mobile OS game--is because they're terrified of trends that reduce the share of ad space relative to total activity. Little to do with wishing they could make the kinds of mobile phone contract revenues Apple was (and is). They saw that mobile users were spending more time in apps and less time using a browser, and launched Android. And given how robust iOS's built-in Gmail client is becoming, they saw potential problems down the road with their (present) approach of trying to choke iOS by undersupporting it with no app. (Releasing a half-arsed app isn't a solution to that problem, mind you, but that's my point.)
Neither Larry or Sergey are great product creators. Really smart guys with many sound, guiding principles? Absolutely. But if this were a sport, a yes-but-what-have-you-done-for-me-lately? approach would have the GM looking frantically for new talent to bring in within the next season or two.
The problem is, they're continually looking for ways to make their One Solidly Profitable Product more profitable. Gmail? To serve ads. Android? To serve ads. Sooner or later they become the computing equivalent of televised news networks, existing mostly to fill space between ads. Like I said, they have better fundamental ideals than the other major players in the space (which isn't saying much given that their primary competition in the space is Yahoo and Microsoft), so Google's run will continue for some time, but Larry and Sergey don't Get It to the degree that people think they do. If they did, the app we saw today would have been seen a year ago, and it would have already been far better back then than today's joke of a release.