Newton will shut down in September after failing to find a viable business model.
Newton, a popular email app for Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android, has announced that it will soon shut down. Founder Rohit Nadhani said that CloudMagic, the company that owns Newton, couldn't find a viable business model that provided profitability and growth, citing stiff competition from first-party email apps. Newton will end service in September.
Writing on the Newton blog, Nadhani said:
It was a tough business decision. We explored various business models but couldn't successfully figure out profitability & growth over the long term. It was hard; the market for premium consumer mail apps is not big enough, and it faces stiff competition from high quality free apps from Google, Microsoft, and Apple. We put up a hard and honest fight, but it was not enough to overcome the bundling & platform default advantages enjoyed by the large tech companies.
New sign-ups for Newton have been suspended immediately. Subscribers for Newton's annual plan for $99.99 can claim a pro-rated refund, though this must be done by September 18, 2018. Newton's app will be shut down on September 25, 2018.
CloudMagic originally launched its email app in 2013, later relaunching as Newton in 2016 as a subscription-based service. Newton could connect to apps and services like Todoist, Trello, and Evernote, the Tidy Inbox feature kept your inbox clutter-free, and the Recap could help you revisit unfinished conversations to find things you might have missed.
For those that loved Newton and the services it provided, it's surely a sad day. I know many people across the Mobile Nations team are avid users of Newton, and will be sad to see it go.
