Gmail for Android: better Priority Inbox support and improved compose
When we first released Gmail in Android Market back in September, we said that you'd be getting new stuff faster, and we meant it. After getting thousands of comments on that release, we made a bunch of updates based …
Context & Ripple Effects
When Google moved Gmail out of the Android system image and into Android Market in September 2010, the pitch was that the app would improve on Google's schedule rather than waiting for OS releases — this December update is the first concrete proof of that promise, shipping better Priority Inbox support and an improved compose experience directly from Market.
The timing matters because Gmail mobile has been iterated continuously since at least 2007, when Google reworked the mobile web interface — but those changes reached everyone at once. The Market-distributed app lets Google stage improvements per release, while Android itself was climbing Gartner's US smartphone rankings through mid-2010.
First-order effects
- Android users get Priority Inbox and compose fixes as a Market download rather than a firmware update, so the improvements land regardless of which OS build or carrier their device runs.
- Google shortens its own feedback loop: the September Market release drew thousands of comments, and this update ships responses to them within roughly three months.
Second-order effects
- Rival smartphone platforms' built-in mail clients are now benchmarked against an app that updates monthly, pressuring Apple and other vendors to loosen their own app-update cycles.
- Each Market-delivered Gmail feature widens the gap between stock Android devices that can install it and older or non-Google-certified phones stuck with the bundled client.
Third-order effects
- If core Google apps keep updating through the store, Android version fragmentation matters less at the application layer — Google controls the experience users touch daily even when carriers control the OS image.
- The pattern points toward smartphone differentiation shifting from operating-system releases to continuously updated cloud-tied services, with Google's own apps as the template.
The trend: Google is using Android Market to decouple its flagship apps from Android OS release cycles, iterating Gmail on its own cadence while the platform's US share climbs.