Amidst all the Gmail app hubbub today, Sparrow, the company that has created a new mail application for OS X, dropped a hint on Twitter that they’ll be releasing a real Gmail client in a couple of months. The Sparrowmailapp Twitter account tweeted, “In a few months, you’ll get the Gmail experience you deserve on your iPhone. Sparrow to the rescue!” It’s long been speculated that Sparrow would attempt to take iOS by storm, much like they did with their OS X application; unfortunately, there’s been some worry that Apple wouldn’t approve a native iOS mail application for inclusion in the App Store.
Today, with the release of the Gmail application, many, including our own Corey Woodcox, noticed that the Gmail application is pretty much a wrapper for the web application, thereby making use of the web view functionality in iOS.
It looks like Sparrow may be willing to take that chance, and we’re glad they’re going to try. Mobile email clients need a mixup, and hopefully Sparrow can be that disruptive force we’re all looking for at this stage of the game. However, my arguments from yesterday still stand: I’m going to have a hard time switching from Mail.app unless these third party applications manage to get access (aka hack) to iCal and other Apple based apps.
