[tl;dr] Mailbird makes emails on Windows pretty

• Launched today, available publically now from getmailbird.com
• Great execution on user experience, more or less like Sparrow on Mac which is arguably the best standalone email client. Quite responsive, elegant and practical. Great if you use Gmail a lot.
• Great use of native Windows desktop UI conventions and styles, ex. the search and compose buttons are elegantly integrated into the window chrome.
• Can only access Gmail right now, probably due to open/simple IMAP implementation vs. Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync for Outlook (my startup is currently facing this issue too).
• Surprisingly not a .NET WPF app (clarification from Mailbird CEO). The Windows desktop is not dead.
• Built-in plugin/web apps support which extend some functionality, not critically useful yet.
• Noteworthy development team of 9 spanning 7 countries. Took over 16 months. Quite an achievement to pull it off for such an early project.
• Interesting business model, especially for an email app, annual subscription of ~$10/year.
• Update: IMAP (besides Gmail) and multi-account support coming once app is out of beta.

tl;dr is a new series of shorter dot-point posts since I now have less time to write while working on my new startup. Let me know what you think of them.