RIP Sunrise, the calendar app too beautiful for this world
Schedule some time to mourn: Sunrise is sunsetting its beloved calendar application.
Sunrise, a critically acclaimed calendar app acquired early last year by Microsoft, is being pulled from app stores in the "next few days" and shutting down for good at the end of August as the team focuses entirely on building up similar features for Outlook.
"We’re not able to support and update Sunrise anymore. No new features. No bug fixes," the Sunrise team wrote in its breakup note to users on Wednesday. "For us, that’s the definition of a lousy app and it’s not a user experience we want to leave you with."
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Sunrise launched in 2012 at what proved to be a renaissance for startups building sleek productivity tools for smartphones and tablets. Sunrise and Tempo added social features and improved the user interface for calendar apps. Mailbox, Sparrow and Accompli tried to drastically improve the e-mail app experience.
As is so often the case, however, a catchy application for consumers is not necessarily the best standalone business, at least not if your goal is to make millions of dollars.
One by one, each of these apps was snatched up by the bigger players in the market -- Microsoft, Google, Dropbox, Microsoft, Salesforce, did we mention Microsoft? The Seattle tech giant has realized that if it can't get us to buy its smartphones, it can at least own more of the time we spend on these devices by buying up all of our favorite apps -- like Sunrise.
It's a bit like watching Starbucks force out your favorite boutique coffee shops all over the city. You can still get your coffee fix, but it just doesn't feel the same.
The sun may come out tomorrow, but then it will probably just be acquired by Microsoft so who even cares.
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Topics Apps & Software Microsoft
Seth Fiegerman was a Senior Business Reporter at Mashable, where he covered startups, marketing and the latest consumer tech trends. He joined Mashable in August 2012 and is based in New York.Before joining Mashable, Seth covered all things Apple as a reporter at Silicon Alley Insider, the tech section of Business Insider. He has also worked as a staff writer at TheStreet.com and as an editor at Playboy Magazine. His work has appeared in Newsweek, NPR, Kiplinger, Portfolio and The Huffington Post.Seth received his Bachelor of Arts from New York University, where he majored in journalism and philosophy.In his spare time, Seth enjoys bike riding around Brooklyn and writing really bad folk songs.
