Newton, a popular email service for iOS and Mac, is shutting down on September 25, the company's founder Rohit Nadhani announced today.

Newton is a subscription-based app that costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, a business model that did not end up being successful. Nadhani says that the company explored "various business models" but wasn't able to "successfully figure out profitability & growth over the long term."

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According to Nadhani, the market for premium consumer mail apps is "not big enough" and faces competition from high-quality free apps from Google, Microsoft, and Apple. "We put up a hard and honest fight," wrote Nadhani. "But it was not enough to overcome the bundling and platform default advantages enjoyed by the large tech companies."

Starting today, Newton is disabling new sign-ups and will not be renewing monthly subscriptions. Customers who paid for an annual subscription will also be refunded on a pro-rata basis, with Newton to offer instructions on claiming a refund no later than September 18.

CloudMagic, Newton's parent company, will continue to operate and will be focusing on "new and innovative products."

Top Rated Comments

Dranix Avatar
86 months ago
100$ each year for a mail client is insane. Why do some developers lose any common sense when they start pricing their products?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
coolfactor Avatar
86 months ago
I'd like to know what defines a "premium consumer mail app"? Did Newton bring something to the table that other mail apps don't have, or were they just hoping to sucker people into spending $10 a month for a mail app?
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
kissmo Avatar
86 months ago
I loved the app until they went on subscription and then I dropped it.
It was nice but not THAT NICE to be worth the price.

I do get there is a need to have profits so I am not commenting. But I cannot afford 100 USD/year on an email client.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Fall Under Cerulean Kites Avatar
86 months ago
Good riddance. I was an early user of their platform, back when it was called CloudMagic. It was a good concept, but the developer never expanded beyond the initial integrations. The nail in the coffin was an overnight change to a subscription-only based solution at $50 / yr. Even if the app had been worth the annual price (it was not), the way the developer went about it proved how inept they were at business. It was a “immediately pay $50 or lose all access to our app.” That made it simple for me. Delete!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LeeTom Avatar
86 months ago
Email clients not profitable? That's crazy... I wonder if... nah, I'm going to go ahead and start my DVD rental store...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
theFly Avatar
86 months ago
"Popular"? Apparently not popular enough. I've seen the app but never been interested enough to pay the subscription fee as it didn't seem to add enough value for any bit of money over free competitors like Airmail or Spark or Apple Mail. I suspect, to be successful, one will have to radically rethink how you handle mail.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)