Gmail Upgrade Expected after Google Buys Sparrow, an Apple Software Developer

The Sparrow email client on the OSX. (Photo : Sparrow)

CEO Dom Leca announced today in a blog post that Sparrow, a company known for its email client for the Mac OSX and Apple iOS, that it has been purchased by Google for $25 million. The acquisition signals a move by Google to streamline its services so that they may appeal more to today's "Twitter-friendly" users.

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The post also read, "Now we're joining the Gmail team to accomplish a bigger vision - one that we think we can better achieve with Google."

The Sparrow email client is popular for its streamlined and twitter-like interface. It was extremely popular with OSX and iOS users, and one of the few email clients, along with Gmail, that was allowed to compete with Apple's Mail system in the Apple app store.

The move, however, will signal the end of Sparrow improving the existing platforms on the OSX and iOS.

CEO Leca told TheVerge, "We will continue to make available our existing products, and we will provide support and critical updates to our users. However, as we'll be busy with new projects at Google, we do not plan to release new features for the Sparrow apps.

Exactly what Sparrow will be doing with the Gmail team remains to be seen. Most likely they will help beautify and streamline Gmail more along the lines of the Sparrow email client. In addition, there is the possibility of Sparrow developing a desktop Gmail client, something Google has shied away from. Google has been an advocate of everything being done in the web browser, from file storage, to even creating an entire operating system for a notebook that is essentially the Google Chrome browser.

As of right now, consensus around the web is that Sparrow's aesthetic ability is one of its greatest strengths, and the fact that Google is interested in them shows that maybe Google is trying something Apple has been doing - provide a simple, intuitive, and aesthetically-pleasing experience, and people will follow.