Gmail Mobile Improves the Interface
Gmail updated the mobile version available at m.gmail.com by adding more features from the desktop version. Now you can configure the links to some of your labels and add other views like Spam or Drafts. Next to the messages you'll see a checkboxes …
Context & Ripple Effects
Gmail first reached handsets in December 2005, when Google opened Gmail to mobile phones through a stripped-down web client. This update closes part of that gap: m.gmail.com now carries desktop features like configurable label links, Spam and Drafts views, and message checkboxes next to each thread.
The move matters beyond the interface itself. Gmail's pull among students was credited in August 2007 as the key driver of college adoption of Google Apps Education Edition, so every feature the mobile client gains extends the product's reach into the segment where Google was converting users into institutional customers.
First-order effects
- Users of m.gmail.com get direct control over their mailbox on the phone: configurable label links, Spam and Drafts views, and per-message checkboxes for acting on multiple threads.
Second-order effects
- A more complete mobile client reinforces Gmail's stickiness with students, the population credited with driving college adoption of Google Apps Education Edition, tightening the funnel from free webmail into paid institutional deployments.
Third-order effects
- If webmail clients keep absorbing desktop features over the browser, handset makers and carriers lose leverage over which mail experience ships on a given phone — the interface travels with the account, not the device.
The trend: Mobile webmail is converging on its desktop counterpart, shifting the primary email surface from the handset's built-in client to the browser.