Five Ways to Improve Gmail for iOS

Great analysis by Ken Yarmosh:

A native Gmail app on iOS had been anxiously awaited for years but when Gmail for iOS launched back in November 2011, it do so to much berating. The main complaint against the app is that it is basically an iOS wrapper around the standard mobile web app. Personally, I found the criticisms overall harsh but it does need to be improved. In no particular order, here are five ways to do that.

I agree on all the points, and I’ll add that Google might consider picking the team that created the Search app for iPad to improve Gmail for iOS. Google Search for iPad is a great app: fast, stable, responsive, innovative – that’s Google at its best, making a native app that is not cumbersome or underpowered. Gmail, on the other hand, feels like an attempt to “get the job done”: take a web view, throw some native wrapper on top of it, call it a Gmail app. Done. Gmail for iOS disappoints, but I’m still hoping Google is preparing something good for it. If that’s the case, please, Google, follow Ken’s suggestions.

On the other hand though, I can’t stop thinking about Sparrow for iPhone. That’s one of my most anticipated apps of 2012.