So.. is Inbox the "advanced" product designed for users with a firehose of email, or the stripped-down version designed for everyday users? It seems to have elements of both. Snooze is a great feature for people practicing Inbox-zero (which anyone getting hundreds of emails a day and remaining sane likely is doing). The increased automation of filters, and the addition of bundles in the inbox all help.
On the other hand, the reduced compose window size, the removal of read message counts within labels, the inability to nest labels, the inability to specify advanced filters, and more, make Inbox (at least without occasional use of gmail) inappropriate for power users.
This article (at least the final paragraph) seems to suggest that Inbox is the power app designed for email-firehose users, but in its current implementation it appears more useful for the everyday user who wouldn't bother to manually set up filters for recurring emails (and could instead just use the new "sweep" feature).
Anyway, I very much hope they continue to develop both products, and continue to support their inter-operation, as well as porting features between them. (Snooze in gmail-proper would be great, for instance. Advanced filters in Inbox aren't really necessary, since they can be managed from gmail. Read message counts and a decent compose window are, though.)
As long as both products maintain a decent user base, perhaps this best case scenario will play out. On the other hand, if a feature-poor (but sufficient for most users) Inbox gains the majority of the market share, I could see gmail going the way of Reader, which would obviously be a shame.
On the other hand, the reduced compose window size, the removal of read message counts within labels, the inability to nest labels, the inability to specify advanced filters, and more, make Inbox (at least without occasional use of gmail) inappropriate for power users.
This article (at least the final paragraph) seems to suggest that Inbox is the power app designed for email-firehose users, but in its current implementation it appears more useful for the everyday user who wouldn't bother to manually set up filters for recurring emails (and could instead just use the new "sweep" feature).
Anyway, I very much hope they continue to develop both products, and continue to support their inter-operation, as well as porting features between them. (Snooze in gmail-proper would be great, for instance. Advanced filters in Inbox aren't really necessary, since they can be managed from gmail. Read message counts and a decent compose window are, though.)
As long as both products maintain a decent user base, perhaps this best case scenario will play out. On the other hand, if a feature-poor (but sufficient for most users) Inbox gains the majority of the market share, I could see gmail going the way of Reader, which would obviously be a shame.