Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge
I.
Say your company makes a new email platform. In 2020, that means building not just a website but also an app — several of them, actually. You’ll probably want clients for Mac and Windows, iOS and Android, the open web, and — if you’re showing off — Linux. In some of these places, like the web, there is no cost for operating this service beyond building and hosting it. And in others, such as the Mac and iOS app stores, there is a significant cost: 30 percent of revenue generated from within the app. This is true even though Apple runs its own email platform, which is free but charges for extra storage, and gets to keep all that revenue for itself.
The above is the situation now unfolding for Hey, a clever and genuinely original email…