Dropbox acquires white-hot mobile email client Mailbox

Well that was quick. Dropbox has acquired the popular email client Mailbox.

In a blog post, the company noted that, like many others, it “fell in love” with the application and realized that Mailbox’s team had the same calling as Dropbox: “to solve life’s hidden problems and reimagine the things we do every day.”

Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

Some of us at The Next Web have been using Mailbox and swear by it. Initial interest in the app was so large that it garnered a massive amount of reservations even before launching on the App Store in February. The company implemented an unusual waitlist feature that showed how many people were in front and behind your place in line.

Mailbox says that its service capacity has grown 2,000 times since launch and it is now processing 60 million emails a day. The company views the move to Dropbox as the best way for it to scale quickly and grow its team of 14, while also noting that “cool things” could happen if Mailbox was integrated with Dropbox.

At first glance, Dropbox does seem to be a good fit for Mailbox (and not just because of the similarities in their names), but some have pointed out that Mailbox’s model could be in trouble if Google limits API access to Gmail. To its credit, Mailbox indicates that it’s actively working on expanding to other email services and mobile devices.

Dropbox revealed last month that a whopping one billion files are uploaded to its servers daily. Reports have suggested that the company will pursue an IPO this year. It is believed to be valued at around $4 billion by investors, though that figure could be out of date, since its last public funding round came in late 2011.

Just about everyone I talk to thinks email is a problem that needs to be solved, and Mailbox’s waitlist shows that users are desperate for a solution. Of course, Mailbox isn’t the only solution out there. Taskbox has attracted some attention for its hybrid to-do list/inbox client, and Unified Inbox recently acquired Helloinbox to grow its cloud-based email and social service.

Image Credit: Mark Wilson/Getty Images